Red Truck

See the bright red Ford pickup?
It is not from here, not of this winter land.
See how it stands out among the subtle

blue-beige nuances of snow, orange-to-
black marbling cast on roofs, wood fences,
bluffs by a low-hanging, unseen sun,
road shadowed to vanishment, a few
straggly drifts clutching at it
as if hanging over the edge of the flat earth,
sharp plunges into darkness of sun-abandoned
windows, as-sharp obtrusion into light
of pine trees, sponge-soaked
with a darkness older than night,
grey-purple-green-beige swell of horizon--

Against these modulations of light-caressed
winter-nude land, how this red truck
(to which the painting points) stands out
in its simple dull brightness,

focus of a beauty that doesn't need it,
a reminder, like fresh lipstick
on a loved, familiar smile,
of overlooked beauty.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 6, 2002