Four Lane Road, 1956, by Diana Pinckney

Four Lane Road, by Edward Hopper (USA). 1956.

Four Lane Road, 1956
                                   
A man sits in a folding chair next to his house,
his shadow against the white wall, his back
 
to the woman who leans through the window,
lashing out at him. Her hair’s red as the pump
 
by the road, her face twisted, the dress rosy 
and amply filled. The man’s face is set, empty
 
as the road stretching before him. Will he go
inside to blows and bites and scratches in the way
 
of the Hoppers or is he resigned to her harangue. 
Will the woman accept his withdrawal and leave
 
him to a landscape beyond, his world within.
​​
Diana Pinckney

Diana Pinckney, Charlotte, NC, has five collections of poetry, including The Beast and The Innocent, 2015, FutureCyclePress. She is the Winner of the 2010 Ekphrasis Prize, Atlanta Review’s 2012 International Prize and Prime Number’s 2018 Award. She admits to being addicted to writing ekphrastic poems and has led a workshop on this form for the Charlotte Center for the Literary Art.