“I think it’s what you take out of a picture that counts.  There’s a residue.  An invisible shadow.”  — Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009

Christina’s World–

In the bottom left corner

a woman in a faded pink dress

thin black belt

sits twisted in the meadow

her back to us

black hair askew from the bun

face turned upward

arms like legs, hands like feet

gazing in the direction

of the weathered farm house

on the hill in the upper right corner.

Shadows—

an elderly woman

her wheelchair

her polio-ravaged legs

her drag marks across

the floors of the farm house

the overwhelming stench

her lobster-red geraniums

in a kitchen window

her tenacity

her world

her brother Alvro’s selflessness

his dory put to bed in the barn.