by Melanie McCabe
Paint Me
Paint me at first as a child might,
with fingers over a sweep of gloss.
Do not be afraid to choose
the incongruous: fuchsia, perhaps,
or saffron. Apricot or indigo. If I am
not those hues, I will feign them
under your hands.
Paint what I would have you master,
my circles and my lines, but then dare
the new—chiaroscuro to show what you
have illumined, what you have left
in shadow— stipple to make
a woman who is seen best
at a remove.
Take me as your subject. Spend years
bending me through shifting light,
watching the arc of sun have its way
with my face, the late shade taking
my body. The canvas between us is
your alibi; only the tips of your fingers
will be tell-tale.
Melanie McCabe is the author of four poetry collections, most recently All The Signs Were There, which won the Longleaf Press Poetry Prize. Her debut novel Road Longer Than Memory from Oceanview Publishing was released in 2026. Her memoir, His Other Life: Searching For My Father, His First Wife, and Tennessee Williams, won the 2016 University of New Orleans Press Prize.
Featured image Steve A Johnson on Unsplash
