Virtue and Disobedience
by Michael Doyle

Painting away your day
As old records play
Each portrait painted with feeling
Is nothing less than soul-revealing

That is to say about the painters' ways
Not of the sitter, despite honoring his days
Spending time on crafting the right impression
This is hard felt at the artist's confession

The curve of your lips excites history
A phantom lover lives by his mystery
Disobedience is deemed the original virtue
As we rewrite history, making it less true

All great ideas live on as our art
Immorally ours and dangerous to the heart
The genius of this needs no explanation
The evil of this defies all rationalization

The controlling eyes limit what the artist sees
To only his sense of desired possibilities
It's not as simple as anyone's skill set
But just enough polish to slip past the regrets

The innocent are too often used as pawns
Until finally, all the survivors are gone
A thousand years masks the overwhelming pain
But nothing, even truth, confesses what is plain

The curve of your lips excites history
A phantom lover lives by his mystery
Disobedience is deemed the original virtue
As we rewrite history, making it less true

All great ideas live on as our art
Immorally ours and dangerous to the heart
The genius of this needs no explanation
The evil of this defies all rationalization

The madman is confident that no one sees
The knife blade felt with much indignity
Thrown to the wolves of his depravity
He wonders if there is someone else to be

In the strangeness of life, death takes a holiday
There are too many sorrows to drink away
A deal made under duress is a deal not made
Yet, the madman and the saint are equally unafraid

(c) October 10, 2024   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved