Copyrighted © by Christer Widegren. All rights reserved.
Image appears here with photographer’s permission.

Early Spring. Snow 
lingers at the edges 
of this plowed field. 

Yellow already blooms 
in rows that stretch across 

the field, and run 
all the way to the trees. 
Dark under dark 

clouds on the horizon, 
starting to blur with rain 

to grow the canola. 

—After a photograph by Christer Widegren*

* Publisher’s Note:

As Phaedrus said to Socrates (in Plato’s Phaedrus ca. 370 BCE): “Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance can deceive many...” The image above is a fine example.

Snow-gravel-wooden house panel is a photographic optical illusion by Swedish visual artist Christer Widegren, which he posted to the Facebook group Peeling Paint Appreciation Society on 21 March 2024.

To learn more about Widegren and his artworks, please visit his website and his Facebook galleries.

Gary S. Rosin

is a Contributing Editor of MacQueen’s Quinterly. His poetry and haiga have appeared, or are forthcoming, in various literary reviews and anthologies, including Chaos Dive Reunion (Mutabilis Press, 2023); contemporary haibun (Volume 17, Red Moon Press, 2022); Concho River Review, Sulphur River, Texas Poetry Calendar; The Ekphrastic Review; and Visions International.

Two of his ekphrastic poems appear in Silent Waters, photographs by George Digalakis (Athens, 2017). He is the author of two chapbooks, Standing Inside the Web (Bear House Publishing, 1990) and Fire and Shadows (Legal Studies Forum, 2008). His poems “Black Dogs” and “Viewing the Dead” were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.