Ashley’s Joy
Painting by Stacey Gustafson

About Ashley’s Joy
By Sonia Geasa
First I see your smile
The smile explodes to laughter
Followed by a tear
On Ashley’s Joy Painting
By Di Lovitt
The flowing, blowing, brown hair is pulled up and off the painting like she is jumping, springing, or dancing; and we can feel her joy.
By Marilyn Slade
Radiating “joie de vivre”
Sparkling eyes, infectious grin
She jumps with joy
An exuberant explosion.
“What brings this on,” we ask?
A plus sign revealing a baby on the way,
An A, even a B+,
Her first poem published,
A soldier coming home,
A weekend trip to Paris?
We don’t know her.
She is simply an image on canvas.
Her magic draws a smile from us.
Layers happiness on each heart.
This stranger’s hot tsunami of delight
Washes away melancholy,
Lifts us out of our humdrum life
Into the bright light of….
Her joy!
