If a Painting Stops You

If a Painting Stops You

Let it grab your shoulders,
fasten its lasso

around your neck, pull you
in by handfuls.

Consider what it wants
to show you,

now that you are alone
together,

what land or bodies, what
light. What eyes

has the painting swapped
for yours,

in what direction is your
head swiveled.

See it, see through it to
the invented

place, this realm, real,
complete,

continuing in all directions
around the bit

you take in. Imagine what
you must

look like over there to them,
from within

the edges, peering into a room
like a mirror.