Action Painting

A canvas we cannot stretch across the frame
nor staple down to fact: a ladder leaning

against an awning, workers pitching tar
on the roof of a church packed each week

with swine—a chain of pearls dangling
off the limbs of an artificial tree

where boy scouts gather in a tool shack,
jacking off to the sounds of Perry Como

on a karaoke machine—a televised priest
gesticulating wildly at the pulpit again.

Homepage image courtesy of Jorge Royan, Wikimedia Commons