After the Shipwreck
       

Paradise can't have people, so they all died.
The wooden sides of the ship bleached in the sun,
smoothed by waves, were salvaged
by artists on their way to another island.
The paintings done on this soft wood
have lasted over four hundred years now.
Curators feel their hands tingle, shake, when allowed
to hang the paintings in their museums.
The wandering artists died so long ago,
Just like the sailors before them.
Not shipwrecked, no drama, they lived
Together and one by one died.
They knew their best work had been painted
on the wood from the ship, and though
careless in so many ways, they protected
the paintings, which hang in all the great
museums, anonymous and brilliant.

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Copyright © 2022 Deborah Keenan All rights reserved
from Sugar House Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission