I  found a pictues of my granddaughter
            when she had moved out.
            I was moving out  as well.

            The picture reminded me of something
            she told me the first time she came to vistit  me
            at the lake house.

            She was intrigued by my paintings.
            It was late in my life when I moved past
            an art teacher who told me  I would never become–

            an artist, for I could not draw a straight line.
            I discovered Modigliani’s works and I was liberated.
            He painted nudes.

            He did not paint realistic faces, but more
            liknesses of African masks,
            when he had his first show in Paris,

            the police came,
            closed his program–
            the reason they gave–

            he painted pubic hair.
            His work told me–
            painting nudes–

            does not require straight lines.
            As for my granddaughter–
            the picture of her was–

            of her naked, she told me she like being naked.
            I have yet to paint that picture of her–
            I vow today–

            to myself
            that I am almost ready
            to prove that art teacher, critic–

            wrong.