the painter's footprints

this big wall in my living room had to be painted white
so they called a "worker" to paint it
or a "laborer" sometimes
no one calls him a painter
but this wall was one giant pain in the ass wall
it had been painted over, done and redone, touched and retouched, flaked and crumbled, had absorbed five years of monsoons
three days the laborer worked
and it's the most beautiful big plain white wall in the world
you'd never know how that wall has suffered
you could put that wall in a gallery and sell it as the best white wall in the world
if he were only allowed to sign his name on this wall
maybe someone would call him a painter