Gray Hair - "Old Man Art"

Black is the deepest shade where white is the beginning of the vast spectrum of gray

Hidden deep amongst the thousand shades are handfuls of the unseen

Is the darkest shade a shade of dismay?

Or is the darkest shade merely the deepest tranquility of gray?

Shadows overlaying shadows where fabulous actors take part in the play

Playing a role that they're okay in, in the many shadows of gray.

At the beginning of the spectrum is the lightest shade called white

Is it light because it's peaceful?

Perhaps it lacks the insight of a deeper shade of gray.

The pictures in his mind

Before the many times he passed away; they were never black or white ...

only gray floating easily at peace, no dismay.

He finger paints a picture where he is a long gray-haired old man

Deep set lines of experience mark his face old,

eyes of tear; highlighted blue

Acrylic thick on canvas for texture, stroke down and left.

And when he fell with that empty in his head, could he have life now that he's dead?

That vision of the pack of grey wolves running parallel to the boy

Wolves against a dense gray forest, boy in the open gray field

The feeling of safety, wolves watching.

As a child, a large white wall, untainted.

The artist paints a mural of the reality of age

Wild strokes left and right, twisting and turning

Knotted in reds and greens and deep dark blues

Below ... the sea of gray.

They are both closed; the eyes

Three apparations visit: a man, a woman, and that small female child

"It's okay", so they say "it's kind of nice to be gray. You may leave this place of decay".

The artist hurries to finish the mural

Color upon color, hidden insets of grays

Wild brush strokes for texture, then that wall of dark gray to the side; not below.

Shivers and shakes as he convulses on the floor

His last breath is in vain, so he thinks ...

He sees the cracked desert floor with hundreds of stampeding mustangs

Looking from above; steam from their noses blow into night's air

No color tonight as he watches from above, only the black, white and gray horse hairs.

The artist sees no color though he uses them so well

He just paints the pictures from his memories

He uses not black or white, just many long shades of gray

Maybe someday ...