Portrait
Glen Armstrong
The figure in the painting plays with the ideas of elsewhere and alternate color schemes.
She soaks up the light around you. “She” takes the place of a proper noun.
I wonder sometimes about clowns and the emphasis they put on their own faces. Though one case study isn’t a trend, it’s capable of exploring how alone one clown claims to be.
In writing class, I was warned about extra bits and repetition. Twice a week, the teacher would help me seek and destroy unneeded words.
I was looking for the next rectangle.
I was asked to collect more data.
I was thinking about the way a painting becomes a museum and a face becomes a crowd.
Glen Armstrong holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters and has three recent chapbooks: Set List (Bitchin Kitsch,) In Stone and The Most Awkward Silence of All (both Cruel Garters Press.) His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Conduit and Cloudbank.