Norman Doesn't Go to Ferguson, Missouri
Not far from Ferguson aflame
are quiet leafy neighborhoods
Norman Rockwell might have painted
when subdivisions first appeared.
These neighborhoods are beautiful
because Norman still comes back
four times a year, some say,
for touch-up work here and there
during the changing of the seasons.
He paints russets on the leaves in fall,
crystals on the snow in winter,
yellow on the daffodils in spring,
red and pink on roses in the summer.
But Norman doesn't paint in Ferguson
because Ferguson he says is Watts
raging down the road to resurrection.