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Do Not Disturb
Mark Thalman

Even though
my wife is asleep,
she raises her arm
at the elbow,
her hand lightly holding
an invisible paintbrush.
She dabs across the canvas of air
arranging colors into a pattern
only she recognizes.
I consider waking her
to ask if it is a portrait, still life,
or landscape, and what the subject
is, but decide better
to let her finish
her masterpiece.

—
Mark Thalman is the author of Stronger Than the Current, The Peasant Dance, and Catching the Limit. His poems have appeared in the Paterson Review, The MacGuffin, Pedestal Magazine, and RavensPerch. He retired from the public schools after teaching English and Creative Writing for 35 years.

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