The Painting On My Wall

by

Lois Francis

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Dark in the dusky greys and blues of a winter wood
the painting graced my sheltered childish room
and whispered secret lives, not known or understood,
of an old man bearing sticks through forest gloom.

His old dog walked beside him along the root-strewn way
between thick soaring pines and scraps of bluish snow.
I tried to see, as he might see, his life that winter's day
and walk the path he walked — so I might know.

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