Kindergarten Picture
Lace around the collar A bow …perhaps a daisy Were you ever sad I wondered There were days that lingered longer Skillfully I shadowed you
If I might have known your happiness Jeanne a.k.a. “Mary” Beyond the Canvas is a compilation of photograph/painting comparisons with poetry, depicting a little girl placed for adoption in 1966 … who grew up on canvas. As an artist she processed, through painted portraits, a silent longing for her estranged child. When the two met as women in 1993, Susan saw for the first time the daughter she had only imagined for nearly three decades. © Susan Van Sleet
On embroidered dress of green
Rows of tiny daisies
Tucked and scattered sleeve to sleeve
Held sectioned hair that day
For a kindergarten portrait
Taken miles and miles away
Or perhaps a bit afraid
I rarely painted you with smile
It was the price I paid
Still others would not end
As the unknown girl created
Lived in my world pretend
In pastels and in brights
And sometimes evening hours
Turned slowly into nights
If I might have watched you grow
My heart and all the love it held
Would have had a place to go.