ManicDDaily

I am posting this (fresh off the brain and iPad 2) for Tess Kincaid’s Magpie Tales 94. Tess gives a weekly pictorial prompt; this week is a wonderful painting by George Tooker called Lunch, exhibited at the Columbus Museum of Art. (The above is my personal reproduction, which I’ve put up just because I enjoy doing my own and can fit it more to my own post. The beautiful original can be seen at Magpie Tales.)

1960‘s Lunch Painting (George Tooker)

Hunched over lunch
as square as
white bread on
processed cheese, each
in a napkin of his/her own–suit
jacket, collar, sleeves–but
what lurks in the hearts
of the beige people?

My guess–everything.
Don’t discount the
counter, fail to read
between the forehead
lines–rainbows
found even in the surface of
coffee regular; a darker face
sandwiched in, intent on the
same meal, not
alien, not, at least,
in this picture, a
painting.

PS- Please please please for Christmas and any purchasing period, check out my new comic teen mystery novel, called NOSE DIVE, on Amazon, written by Karin Gustafson, wonderfully illustrated by Jonathan Segal, available in print and soon on Kindle (for just 99 cents!) Also check out my poems, Going on Somewhere (illustrated by Diana Barco, cover by Jason Martin) and children’s picture book, 1 Mississippi (pictures and words by me. A great book if you like counting and elephants.)