The black frame
holds the portrait treasures it
sets it off from the wall’s infinity
like silence after and before
not to mock or force a lack
but issue forth confer a given name
echo its colors answer back
its lines and shapes in rhyme
and draw your eye to beauty
not of an image but of the one you know
not ink or paint but love
given not made untakable
not cut off but heightened
by the loving embrace of
the black frame.