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Handy Man
By Denise A. DeVries

Here's to the man whose paintings of hands
should gather applause all over the land,

who first built a gallery and then a museum
so people could come to Kilmarnock to see them.

Mano a mano he took on the neighbors,
who, blind to his vision, derided his labors,

and those local bigots who just couldn't tell
the difference between him and any Manuel.

A handlebar-mustachioed artist, it seems,
shadows his work with surrealist dreams,

and gallery viewers walk to and fro,
pairing his name with Picasso, Van Gogh...

seeing the handwriting there on the wall,
but few have the eye to answer the call.

They drive down the road to buy a piece
with sailboats and herons, or maybe some geese.

He takes his handkerchief, wipes his brow,
and keeps on building anyhow.

His wife's a translator, his daughter an actor,
and he sculpts the land on a '54 tractor.

Genious!

People who get ahead in life usually get there on time.