The Blue-Eyed Boy
William Winfield Wright

She hangs paintings in the bathroom
and why not, for she spends
lots of time there,
and the light comes off of the water
like in Venice.

The blue-eyed boy has irises,
rare in Modigliani
whose other paintings stare
blindly from pale orange sockets.

Perhaps it’s the idea of innocence
or the desire to match the turquoise
in the back of the painting
or the sailor suit and the need
to look out at the sea.
His hair will never brown,
his head never turn toward noise,
and he is already older
than anyone who looks at him.

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