Painting on My Bedroom Wall
Artist unknown; the painting has everything:
A back view so all might be imagined
but may never be revealed, a tableau
of mystery, misty, somewhat muted.
There is soft light, a plea for gentleness,
scented roses, a bedside book and candle.
Set by an ancient window, muslin-dressed
in lily-white, a simple wooden bed,
patchwork-quilted, soft and silken-pillowed.
I spy perhaps my own child-self dressed in
lace and Irish linen, her hair loose and
long and wayward in its curl, a tortoiseshell
cat close by, her one familiar.
Is she pondering, is she sad or is
she all a-wonder? I do not know for
her thoughts and face are hidden, even the
beauty of her downturned face can barely
be recalled to mind, the dewiness once
contained within is now unrecognised
but surely she has learned that there is comfort
to be found at every fall of day
and hope at every day’s beginning.
Cait O’Connor
Does anyone recognise this picture? Can anyone tell me the painter’s name? I cannot make out the name on the print which I bought very cheaply from an Oxfam shop. I fell in love with it at first sight.