12:50 PM in the Art Museum

by Georgie Lee Blalock III 
 

You've got ten minutes left for lunch
and no inspiration.
Surrounded by a thousand brushstrokes of
decaying autumn oil paints falling quietly 
outside the window of a sorrowful Victorian baptism,
 their burnt umber tones heavy in the Trial of Constance de Beverley
 all you can hear is the canvas stretching between the frames. 
 
 You'd slap the marble muse if you thought it would help
 but the bald Guard is watching
 and there's cake this afternoon,
 back at the office. 

© 2004 by Georgie Lee Blalock III. All rights reserved.
Georgie Lee Blalock III was born and raised in San Diego where she wrote for Instructional Television. She has an M.A. in Screenwriting from California State University, Northridge and currently lives and writes in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in The Curbside Review and Square Lake.