Chilmark School Art Exhibit
Luminous birds, lion-hearted lighthouses
and open-faced portraits, the one I kept
coming back to looked like an otter.
My friend said “seal” but switched to “owl!”
I had to agree; the feathers. “The kind
of thing they’ll teach out of them,” he said,
and he may be right—but, someone helped them
make the paintings, hang them. So, come to the show
of artists at the start of their careers,
however brief. And come for the owl.
I hope it is a self-portrait, because
even though it looks picked on, I can tell
it’s a survivor. That’s why I want it.
Donald Nitchie
Donald Nitchie lives in Chilmark. His poetry chapbook “Driving Lessons” was published in 2008 from Pudding House.