Ekphrastic - Hopper's "The Long Leg"

I used to take art lessons - I wasn't all that good, but I learned well enough, and still hold a fond place in my heart for those who can create with chalk and watercolor, oil and ink. One of the paintings I copied was Hopper's The Long Leg, which is in the Huntington Gallery in Greater LA. I've seen it in person many times (I kind of grew up with it), and there's a replica in my bedroom opposite my bed (I don't know when it showed up, my mom put it in there). Oh, and my crude pastel version is on our living room wall. If you ever come over, you'll recognize it as the least talented work in the room. Anyways, I wanted to write a poem about it, and was struck by the angular nature of the work.

The long leg, or the hypotenuse,

is the line traveled, given reference

and length by other lines

drawn to the stars,

making a most right and proper

triangle, the shape that sailors make.

The Long Leg, by Hopper,

is full of such forms;

obtusely blue seas,

ten fathom of brine

beneath the ship’s copper;

the point the prow makes

as it ploughs up its furrow

the pythagorean arrow that fits

at the head of the wake;

clean canvas made fast

to a mast made of spruce,

carrying the ship along

at quite a clip

past the windward world,

a land of squat squares

and smooth rounded sands.