Poem of the Week

Justin Boening is the author of the collection Not on the Last Day, but on the Very Last, selected for the National Poetry Series, and the chapbook Self-Portrait as Missing Person, winner of a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Boening is an instructor at the Columbia University Summer High School Program.

The Portrait of What Is Not There

by Justin Boening

I’m tired of painting the portrait of what is not there.
And I should be. The way it is, the way it has to be,
the portrait of what is not there seems too narcissistic
to ever be complete.

Want to read the rest?
Please login.
New to Narrative? sign up.
It's easy and free.
The password field is case sensitive. Account & Password Help.
Joining Narrative gives you FREE access to thousands of stories, poems and essays. It’s easy:
PLEASE ENTER A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS.
PLEASE NOTE: We are discontinuing our support of Microsoft-related addresses, including msn.com, live.com, outlook.com, and hotmail.com, and we ask that you use an alternative address, such as gmail.com, yahoo.com, fastmail.com, comcast.net, verizon.com, icloud.com, or other.

We have found Microsoft-related email addresses to be sometimes inconsistent in terms of delivering messages, and we want to make sure that you can access your account and reliably receive messages that you have requested.
Email Preferences
Email Preferences