Dr. K____ ‘s Slide Show

by William Corbett

I’ll start at the beginning—

Baby picture

I didn’t paint for ten years—

Blank screen

It’s my way or the highway—

Thin lipped severe dry humor

“Did we do that to you?”

Quipped good fairy aunt Muriel

When I paint my portrait

I’m not self-conscious

The Doctor’s right. She’s after

The dream view, what she

Really looks like not what

She sees in the mirror.

She means to paint through

The face reflected there to the face

She will recognize as her own.

Impossible? Henry Moss took

A Polaroid portrait, aimed

At his face and pressed the button,

Every day for one summer.

Henry couldn’t get to the face

That he had never seen before.

So, it’s Dr. K____’s way and the highway.

Hand me down my pork pie hat!

We’re all on the road to ourselves.