Computer Online Blues

   Out, Out Damn Spot

Oh, yes the bark draws me in

grabs me like my maddened hound

Jasper woofs “this is my ground,

so let us go round and round”

I’m talking of the internet

seductive little bitch

it draws me in like sweet water

yet I end up in the ditch

The work I meant to do

inside my studio next door

with watercolors drying out

paint brush lies upon the floor

Seductive yes, the old G-mail

with letters from a friend or two

and seductive services you know

like “this book was meant for you”

Of course the games like solitaire

or mahjong seduce you to win

so you say “just one” and then

that goal goes ye old trash bin

I must learn to lock the door

to keep me from getting in

for even when I do research

I stumble into, yes, call it sin

Okay, that virtue that I said

I’d not go in that room

I now sit in front of screen

Guilt is my pet filled with gloom

To the studio I go right now

filled with evening Eastern light

Yes, I will start wetting paper

to begin to fill the sky, right?

For today when I was at class

exercising with my CV mates

Out the window bloomed blue sky

To study for myself to create

For a painting from a dream

that filled my soul with wonder

dancing in my mind was he

I can’t let him fall asunder

Okay, I’ll go and spend the night

not under TV or computer glow

and do the thing that my soul says

on watercolor paper I will show

This vision to other souls

and take the voices from online

fill them in my belly like dinner

and make the vision shine so fine

Yes, dear Jim, you can do it

do not be so damn afraid

grab that brush with your hand

your painting shall be made

Thank you all for reading this

I hope you can confer with me

know that dog was barking that

you must be what you can be

That painting shall materialize

with hard, sweet artistic diligence

and hopefully when you look at it

in your eyes & heart it makes sense

©j.m.frase-white 3 May 2024

Sketch Above is for the painting I have begun and if I am real good I shall go

into my studio now and work upon the water and the fish, the sky is brightening well, I'll clothe him in fancy wear and see what happens next.