Self-Portrait with Black Background, by Sharon Tracey

Self-Portrait with Black Background, by Helene Schjerfbeck (Finland) 1915

Self-Portrait with Black Background

I carry the world on my back,
a cup and flask to drink, bread
that will not weight me. 
I carry the clear Finnish light 
to save its summer flame.

I dispose of what I can until
the face is plainly empty, till
I behold the road, its fork,
the small steps tread.
I set cornerstones to anchor 

paint to more than earth, even if 
at times it is myself. 

I remove details like brush
cleared from the spruce forest. 
Study my face as if stranger--
cleft of chin, salmon cheeks, 
cloudberry lips, pale skin. 

Background dark-dark-dark
like the infinite winter night.
At the edge of Helsinki Harbor,
I set down the world. I rinse
my visage in the Baltic Sea.

Sharon Tracey

Sharon Tracey is a writer and editor and author of the poetry collection, What I Remember Most Is Everything (All Caps Publishing, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Egg Mom Review, Tule Review, Common Ground Review, The Ekphrastic Review, several anthologies and elsewhere. 
sharontracey.com