The practice of painting utility boxes to brighten them up and decorate otherwise undecorated spaces has taken on a life of its own. Sometimes the paintings are graphic shapes, sometimes realistic as photography, and of course you also find everything in between.
The decorations on utility boxes invites the public to engage with art in a low key, casual way. It’s not Art with a capital A, officially approved by Someone Who Knows Art Best and hung on a museum wall. Its art out in the world, getting rained on the same as you and me, getting splashed by traffic, getting covered with snow.
Today’s poem is just such a casual engagement with the art on a utility box. Which also makes this an ekphrastic poem–inspired by, and in this case, also descriptive of, a piece of art.
Black and White Painted Box
—Calgary, Alberta, Canada
One red tower in the distance
and the rest of the world gray and grayer
masquerading as black & white
but nothing stays clean and every surface
is roughed up, scratched, scoured by windblown
—anything, really: snow, mostly, but grit
and dust and rain and soot and de-icer
—and in the foreground
almost too close to bear a woman leans
away, surprised, wearing goodness only knows
what sort of shirt that’s meant to be
or maybe just a suggestion of tank
over abs as her biceps are
just suggestions of skin over muscle
and behind her behind the ‘scrapers
rays of gray white light charcoal and ivory
mimic the sprawl of her hair
whose hair moves like that? With what wind? Calgary's
too west for Nor'easters and too east
for the Squamishes and anyway
in that outfit this is no Alberta Clipper--
so no one's hair moves like that--
unless maybe in the gust front of a passing squall--
making this one more suggestion
except for that one tower,
spire red, the only thing
in the whole dream, that’s real
even with eyes open.
~~
Sometimes I can find out who designed/painted the public art, but in this case I was unable to do so. The box is (or was) located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. If anyone happens to know who is the artist, I would love to credit them.