An ekphrastic of Roberta Hahn Edward's 2025 watercolor of a "Little Creature"
She started when still quite young,
creating little husks of life
on watercolor paper, bringing them
into being, wringing them from pores
in the sheet, bright and strange
little monsters, never mean or dirty
crippled by Nature’s twist, but happy
nonetheless, wisps of blue or tan,
perhaps part Man but mostly wrong,
three legs or eyes on top, curved
at the spine, limping, ragged
never meant to be hers, yours or mine
As she grew older, they stayed
always just a brush stroke away –
evolved, became larger, more articulate
some could not wait to speak her name
into her ear, when no one else was near --
it was the oddest of notions, easiest
not to stop and give it thought
or reason, no matter time or season
just little friends, growing bigger
as she stood in the cold farmhouse
letting them live on the tabled page
she could not say when they started
riding on her hip, or in a pocket
or shoe, hanging from the nape just off
the collar of her shirt, maybe in hem
of skirt, never doing or meaning harm
just little friends, quite quiet, calm
and above all safe and warm
Did they come to speak to her? Oh, yes
in whispers at first, never to intrude
thoughtful, far from rude, observant
perhaps to offer warning or caution,
she came to learn there were some people
out there, intent to do her wrong,
staring her way a bit too long as she
walked on the street, scuffing feet,
speaking out loud to the invisible
painted little friends so near to her
She left one day, not a word to any
of her species, just disappeared,
none knew why or where, a knock
on her door but no one there, even though
her flesh and bone sat upright at table’s
edge, staring straight ahead, lips
just barely moving, breath in, breath out
sun rose and fell, no one home at all
but a small puddle of red, by the end
of her brush, drying slow on table’s top
nothing left to see or hear, or be said
no place to start, or pause, or stop
Steve Sibra grew up on a small farm in eastern Montana. His work has appeared in numerous journals over the past fifteen years. Steve's full-length poetry book, Shoes For Baby, was published in 2022 by Swallow Press.
