Skin in the Game, by Devon Balwit

Skin in the Game: a Retrospective
after painter Joan Semmel
 
1.
I move [over] 
my own territory
partnered / alone 
the same angling 
so as best to inhabit 
the cardinal directions
the short and the long 
of whatever 
frame / room / role 
I am in 
the darker line 
of each meeting 
surprising
even me 
as it emerges 
from the confluence 
of two [or more] 
bright effluvia  
 
2. 
By now my materials
are so familiar 
as to be effortless
some might say all 
but exhausted 
[but not I] I love / live 
by extracting
color from the wrinkled
tubes choosing 
the broad or the narrow 
brush big enough 
for a goddess or a person 
in miniature
 
3.
They offer me 
a retrospective
and I smile 
Janus-faced by nature 
always looking 
both forward 
and backward 
slipping
earlier canvasses 
from storage
and holding them up
to my most recent
iteration

Devon Balwit

When not teaching, Devon Balwit chases chickens in Portland, OR. Her most recent collections are Rubbing Shoulders with the Greats [Seven Kitchens Press, 2020] and Dog-Walking in the Shadow of Pyongyang [Nixes Mate Books, 2021].
For more, visit her website: https://pelapdx.wixsite.com/devonbalwitpoet