Victor W. Brown is a Georgia-based painter, mixed-media sculptor, and visual artist whose work has been featured in galleries, group shows, and virtual exhibitions. His abstract art blends history, emotion, and sensuality. A graduate of LeMoyne-Owen College with a background in history, he is a native of Newport News, Virginia.
by Victor W. Brown (1998)
Lovata bakes cakes on Sunday
her ingredients didn’t come from a cookbook.
They came from the lace on her dress,
from the buckles on her shoe,
from the dirt roads in Pinetop, North Carolina.
They came from her gold tooth smile,
from the stories she told us,
from Grandma Hattie’s kind hands.
They came from a place
beyond our reach.
by Victor W. Brown (2009)
AC look out across the water in deep thought,
his eyes fixed—
but not really seeing.
He drifts through memories
of his grandfather, Jeremiah Pruitt,
his mother, Zetta,
his father, Augustus Senior.
He thinks of his wife, Lovata—
the calm in his restless tide.
I see him looking,
but he can’t see me.
He has thoughts of his children,
who now
have thoughts
of their own.
The Queen and Ambition
by Victor W. Brown (1998)
Written for my parents, August Calvin Brown Jr. and Lovata Moss Brown
The beauty queen from the South has caught
the eye of the man of Ambition.
Ambition wants to do great things—
he says his life is in his hands.
His father said, “Stand up and be counted.
Lay each stone with perfection,
and the world will come to you.”
The man of Ambition wanted to fly,
to walk among men with great medals—
but life gives you hope,
and shows you the truth—
not your truth, but truth.
The winter winds blow,
and two hands meet.
She left another place
to escape the tobacco fields of despair.
Her mother taught her compassion
and the will to survive.
The Queen had ambition
long before she met him.
Together, they built a home—
of sweat, blood, exhaustion,
love, fear, drive, ambition, and hope.
The Queen and Ambition
had written their own script—
but now they know:
the Book of Life
is written
one page at a time.
Victor W. Brown 