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“Adam’s House”

Edward Hopper lightly sketched
    an ordinary white house in Maine:
        the one on the hill

above Gloucester, the one
    with the ornamental ledge over the door.
        He applied his pigments next, watercolors

to make the hydrant yellow,
    the space between the pickets black,
        the shutters blue-green

at every window.
    The building’s lightwashed gaze
        shuttles your eye

to a high wooden pole
    with its crossarms and insulators.
        Let’s not speculate

why there are no birds on the wires
    and no people in the street:
        the picture’s not meaning––

it’s moment.
    At Gloucester, he said, when everyone else
        would be painting ships at the waterfront

I’d just go around looking at houses––
    structures that became
        radiant matter-of-fact

like the one on the hill
    with the sun’s weightless palm
        shining on its face.

© 2000 by Brian Powers

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