Colin McCahon Was an Elvis Impersonator

checked shirt
jeans
sideburns
and the tendency towards
a quiff over the forehead

he could have painted
Man With a Cadillac Grin
or speed stripes
along the sides
of a bottle-green Vauxhall
or the infinite variations
of three-dimensional chess
in two dimensions

but it was the era
of Sputnik
All Shook Up
and the Northland Panels