House of Cards, by Barbara Lydecker Crane

House of Cards, by Zinaida Serebriakova (Ukraine) 1920

House of Cards
     
No chatter from these four, nor a smile.
My children build a house of cards to wile
away an afternoon. Their listless eyes
reflect cascading loss and compromise.
Their Papa died, imprisoned without cause
by Bolsheviks who scoffed at Russian laws, 
looted and burned our beloved country home.

I’ve painted this in blue monochrome;
I found an unused tube of Prussian blue.
We face the choice of decent, healthy food
or oil paints. I’ll start quite soon to sketch
on paper, with cheap charcoal or pencil, and fetch
what cash I can. I’ll work with speed and prayer.
This painting holds my love and my despair.

Barbara Lydecker Crane
​
Barbara Lydecker Crane, a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist in 2017 and  2019, has received two Pushcart nominations and several awards for her sonnets. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Alabama Literary Review, Ekphrastic Review, First Things, Light, Measure, Montreal Review, Think, Writer’s Almanac, and many others.  She has published three chapbooks: Zero Gravitas, Alphabetricks, and BackWords Logic. Her book of sonnets about artists and portrait paintings, entitled You Will Remember Me, will be published by Able Muse Press.