if...

(This one is has a little catch in it. Picasso, in his 85th year completed around 500 paintings. Virtually no one has ever been so productive. It is not a lament, but a realization.)

If I had my future in my hands
I’d live frugally
Except for my new Dodge truck
I’d grow vegetables
I’d grow flowers for my lover
I would spend hours and hours
In the comfort of my shop
Creating mounds of sawdust
The stuff that wasn’t furniture or sculpture
I’d stretch a canvas from time to time and
I’d spread paint. Thick or thin,
But mostly ugly.
Wood blocks, ceramic cups
I’d try to out produce Picassio.
Home made bread and calligraphy
Dostoevsky and Thoreau.

It wouldn’t happen,
It couldn’t happen
Of course,
But what a goal.
What a dream.