(after Richard Diebenkorn)

 

 

Several random rooftops protrude—

                        middleground pentimenti of lavender-eggwhite

                                    density. Hunt terns on the pool’s

                                    perimeter? These are city walls, after all,

                        these buildings have levels—not quite rectangular

nor triangular, what were you expecting?

 

Pentimenti aren’t mis-steps but reflections

            building up in the pond you’re rowing in—which is nothing

                        compared to aquamarine pools of L.A.

                        where a lipstick left open melts

            into an ars rosetica. Elsewhere, stepladder

grids bracket the back of black.

 

Against the purity of a white wall

dancers’ curves harden in plaster.

 

 

(“Ocean Park No. 43” from Serious Pink, a collection of ekphrastic poems, by Sharon Dolin © 2003.

With permission of the publisher, Marsh Hawk Press, all rights reserved.)