High Noon, 1949, by Diana Pinckney

High Noon, by Edward Hopper (USA), 1949.

High Noon, 1949
        
A woman alone in a doorway, her sheer
robe parted. A shrug would drop it to her feet.  
The loose gown is mirrored by the window above 

where curtains sway half open and a yellow 
shade is half way down.  We wonder if the woman 
looks for the one coming or watches someone 

leave. Like her saltbox house, she’s caught 
between whites and grays, the Cape Cod scene 
stilled except for the red flare of foundation and chimney. 

What has happened before she gave her beauty 
to a sun that bathes her features, golds 
the fair hair.  Shadows play on the half-naked body.  

In this moment when morning becomes afternoon,
when the hero steps into the street to meet his fate,
a woman moves into the light. Behind her darkness waits. 

Diana Pinckney

Diana Pinckney is the winner of the 2010 Ekphrasis Prize and Atlanta Review’s 2012 International Poetry Prize. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize 5 times. Cream City Review, Crucible and Persimmon Tree are among the journals that have given her awards. Published in RHINO, Cave Wall, Arroyo, Green Mountains Review, Tar River Poetry, The Pedestal Magazine, Nine Mile Magazine, Still Point Arts Quarterly, & other journals and anthologies, Pinckney has five books of poetry, including 2015’s The Beast and The Innocent.