The Story of the Blank

There was a poster on the wall,

A reproduction of Van Gogh,

Of his Café Terrace at Night.

It was held in a plastic frame

That was a little bit too large,

Mass-produced, with a cardboard back,

Black plastic rails that held the sides,

A clear plastic sheet for the glass,

A white paper blank for the back.

And there it hung for several years,

The rich colors, even in print,

Of the Café Terrace at Night.

One afternoon, the bottom rail

Succumbed to something, some gathered

Gravity and slippage, and fell

From the bottom of the plastic,

And then the whole poster slid out.

The girl in the room didn’t know

What to do with this disaster,

So she slid the paper poster

Of the Café Terrace at Night

Under the bed, leaving the frame

To hang on the wall by itself.

Over the months, another rail,

And then another, slipped away

To clatter on the floor and be

Kicked under the bed with the art,

But the cardboard and white paper

Backing still hung there, a blank

Rectangle refusing to fall.