"Kindergarten Picture"
from ...Beyond the Canvas

by Susan Van Sleet
Author, Artist, Birthmother

Author of Beyond the Canvas

Lace around the collar
On embroidered dress of green
Rows of tiny daisies
Tucked and scattered sleeve to sleeve

A bow ...perhaps a daisy
Held sectioned hair that day
For a kindergarten portrait
Taken miles and miles away

Were you ever sad I wondered
Or perhaps a bit afraid
I rarely painted you with smile
It was the price I paid

There were days that lingered longer
Still others would not end
As the unknown girl created
Lived in my world pretend

Skillfully I shadowed you
In pastels and in brights
And sometimes evening hours
Turned slowly into nights

If I might have known your happiness
If I might have watched you grow
My heart and all the love it held
Would have had a place to go.

Jeanne a.k.a. "Mary"

Beyond the Canvas is a compilation of photograph/painting comparisons with poetry, depicting a little girl placed for adoption in 1966 ... who grew up on canvas. As an artist she processed, through painted portraits, a silent longing for her estranged child. When the two met as women in 1993, Susan saw for the first time the daughter she had only imagined for nearly three decades.

Credits: Susan Van Sleet