Blue Girl, by David Jibson

Fillette, by Paul Cezanne (France) 1873.

Blue Girl

I’m standing in a gallery with my hands in my pockets.
A girl is looking out at me from a painting wondering
(judging by the expression on her face)
whether I am wondering the same thing
that she’s been wondering since Paul Cezanne
painted her in a shady garden wearing her blue dress
and white apron in 1873, which is,
“what is the difference between
impressionism and expressionism?”
​
But I’m not thinking that at all.
I’m wondering why it feels to me as though
Paul Cezanne had painted me standing in front of her
in my cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirt
with my hands in my pockets in 1973.

David Jibson

David Jibson is the editor of Third Wednesday Magazine, a quarterly print journal of literary and visual art.  He is a coordinator for events of the Crazy Wisdom Poetry Circle in Ann Arbor, Michigan.