Whistler's mother

If the sitter
enjoys a moral position
but her chair is cushioned
with pictures of Billy Graham
as a young, exciting power seeker,
and the Vatican City in Rome with a current Pope or several
dozen of them hangs black framed from a
nearby wall from where Muhammad with his entourage of Virgins
can be seen heading to Mecca with his bloody spoils;
while the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem sits in stony countenance
near perfectly formed pyramids in the desert heat, all
easily seen from her imprisoning chair which will not rock,
can she remain comfortably numb?

Would she still desire that thin white wafer
placed lovingly inside her mouth once
each month of a year
while kneeling before her believed Truth
if it were not True?

Did she think she would not die?

And you will die, too.

We're all dying, in our own way.

Most are very afraid.

A few, not at all.

The portrait of Whistler's mother
by Whistler
did not require him to decipher any such enigma.

As a result, he experienced fewer difficulties.