American Gothic—Talia Pinzari

Painted by Grant Wood in 1930, American Gothic is featured in the collection of the
Art Institute of Chicago. It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter—often assumed,
mistakenly, to be his wife.

 

He’s your midwestern father, a handyman 
with a head bald as the knee he took 
to spread mulch this morning 
and a sweat-beaded neck stiffened 
by sternness over your proposed plans 
to stay at a coed sleepover in perfect 
summer, upholding a 3-pronged argument 
like a pitchfork he’ll use to toss 
your request over his shoulder 
and through the steepled window.
You, daughter, stand there 
avoiding his eyes like a meeting 
between orange juice and toothpaste,
buck-riding stormy angst 
with stillness and lips pressed 
as communion wafers. 
Meanwhile, out of frame, 
your porch-plant-watering mother, 
fanning herself with a church bulletin 
despite the day’s breezy Puritan chill.

____________