Wrestling with Sunsets

In my apartment sits a pile of failed

attempts to paint a sunset.

Surely rendering a sunset is elementary;

I wonder what is wrong with me.

With its west facing windows, high above the city,

the sunsets over Durham are spectacular.

Some nights I miss dinner on the town

because I cannot not pull away from the sunset view.

When I couldn’t successfully paint them live

I started taking pictures.

When I failed to produce from photographs,

I sought help from You Tube.

Now my sunset images are improving thanks to those nameless

painters who make me feel inferior with every brush stroke.

When our Mom framed my brother’s pastel sunset

he became the sunset producer in the family.

When I asked her how I could get one of my pieces on the wall

she explained that you should never do that to a child.

“If you do, all they will paint is sunsets,” she said,

citing an article she had recently read on the subject.

My sunset pieces are starting to show promise.

Maybe I’ll frame one and put it on the wall.

Or maybe I should learn to paint clouds instead.