The thing to avoid is in that frame,
the reasoned screen fixing light
and shade in pithy squares of shape.
A man sitting outside in a wood chair,
his shirt is brighter than the page
he squints at. The book has browned,
like skin, with exposure. There is
the indispensable one. If
it is this easy to paint

objects why not call it
portraiture? The hunch
of shoulder, the magnet
of the subject at the center, hedged