Ode to a Painter by the Sea
A great cliff rests above the ocean
where people line up, awaiting their turn.
Throughout the waves are lovely boatmen,
wearing big straw hats, dressed in white uniforms.
The painter’s boat is docked at port,
He does not enjoy the sea,
Only the work.
A palette in hand, he listens to pleas
from the people on the rocks, standing,
in purgatory.
The painter sits on the starboard side,
Toward his canvas, with a brush in hand.
Weighing their natures, feeling the tide,
a painter he is, of the sea and sand.
Madison Fishman is a fourth-year Photography student at the School of Visual Arts. Her work explores themes of identity, societal expectations, and personal experience, often through the lens of poetry and visual art.