The Canvas

A Scythian word, maybe,

Since it was once made from hemp.

It was already cotton

In India, three thousand

Or more years ago. You can

Also make it from linen.

Thick fibers, tight weave. Heavy

Textile, in any event,

Good for sails, jackets, and tents—

Stretched, as a surface for paint.

Canvas on frames for painting

Inevitably suggests

Blankness, as in blank canvas,

Possibility, the lack

Of prior experience,

An artistic jape in which

The blank canvas is the art.

What else? A strangely white sky

Without any clouds, not blue

As you would expect, not grey,

But looking faintly woven,

Like this sky, not luminous,

Flat, blank, hinting at some snow,

But it’s autumn and still warm,

And is this even the sky

Or something else entirely,

Some stupid blank abstraction?