Monday, May 15, 2023

#512 Le Masque Vide



Many believed that politeness
was just a mask, that what was
said may not be what was meant
or thought: or, from the other
side, thought to mean, though
the politeness was reciprocated.
Not quite the bland leading the
bland, but close enough. What
we have here acknowledges
those rules but is much more an-
gular, abrupt, an elbow to the
ribs. All politeness torn away:
the mask is empty; but the words
that hide behind the words be-
hind the mask are now exposed.
A pity we cannot see them all.

Monday, May 01, 2023

#511 La Gravitation Universelle


The wall is artifice, is illusion, a masque to keep the forest at bay — at least it seems that way until the hunter gets his arm stuck in it & Newton's law of universal gravitation kicks in. Or, equally, kicks out. Allegorically, this could be a depiction of the "first great unification," a realization of the attraction of particles. Or, if you're so inclined, another allegory, where Isaac Newton is the hunter, presenting the 1st Book of his Principia to the Royal Society, & Robert Hooke is represented by the wall, ac- cusing Newton of plagiarism &, as punishment for the theft, attempting to take his hand off.

Sunday, April 23, 2023

#510 The Emergence


"Put it into perspective," the fado singer says as the white bird wheels away & takes the daytime with it. "Except for the stars, the sky will be empty now for several hours; & though having a supposed symbol of hope around might at first seem comforting, grief is best left to emerge when one is in the open or beside the sea. Clean, simple. No melodrama."

Sunday, April 16, 2023

#509 La Porte Ouverte





The painter, flushed with pride from the achievement of turning Venus de Milo in to flesh before he posed her in a meadow, finally recog- nizes his hubris when the shadow that has started following him everywhere makes him aware that any statue can stand still for long enough to have a beard & mustache painted on them.

Sunday, April 02, 2023

#508 The Childhood of Icarus




We lived in a house full of
models for, & details from,

paintings. Inside & out. My
father showed me how to

use the wings he built by
teaching me how to ride a

a horse & wield a whip. 
Everything so large when I

was young, save for the Sun
which seemed so far away.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

#507 The Taste of the Invisible



Has he taken a bite from the side of the apple we cannot see? Is that what he is tasting? Or is there an additional something — let's say a piece of butter- scotch to give it a whisker of substance — hidden in behind that apple, another entity which will be either visible or invisible depend- ing on the side of the apple the observer finds themself at a particular point in time? "Here we have the apparent visible, the apple, hiding the hidden visible, the person’s face." R.M.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

#506 Of Limbs & Luxury


Today the post-
woman brought
me an already ex-
pensive castle in
the Pyrenees. If
I had added the

optional extra of
that giant bird
found in some
Magritte paintings
it would have cost
me an arm & a leg

on top of a basic 
price I can't really
afford. & since Ma-
gritte is dead, I don't
trust the vendor's
guarantee that the

artist will paint 
any missing limbs
back on me, just 
like he did to the 
model in Attemp-
ting the Impossible.

Thursday, March 09, 2023

#505 Le Présent




It appears as if birds
with ancient lineages

find it difficult to deal
with the present on 

its own terms unless 
they have some well- 

worn article from the 
past to comfort them.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

#504 La Belle Lurette

The bilboquet is monocular, a
cyclops in an uninhabited land-
scape whose presence does not

change the land around even if 
it does add some life to its sur-
rounds, even if the addition of

a cloak brings more humanity. Elsewhere, the ruined watch- tower is in the act of changing, those roots insinuating a future tree, even if il y a belle lurette, even if that started a long time ago.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

#503 Jeunesse

From Amazon in Belgium 
I can order this as a "Canvas 
Wall Art Print for Living Room 
Home Decor Ready to Hang
(90 x 117 cm (31.5 x 46.1 in)), 
Framed" for just €191.26. I 
think of buying it, to see if 
it does for me what another 
portrait did for Dorian Gray. 

But then, but then. At 81 
it's probably too late to weave 
any magic it might have had 
on me, even though the web-
site says it's a great gift idea 
for Valentine's Day which 
just happens to be today. 
What finally turns me away 
is a sudden vision of the 

aging process occuring — 
since we have no attic — in 
the back garden shed, the 
teeth at first, then the lungs, 
the hearing, the knees. It's 
not the actual deterioration, 
rather the caveat from the 
vendor: that spare parts are 
not available nor provided.

Saturday, January 21, 2023

#502 La Bonne Foi (2)


For once the tie's knot fills the collar. The pipe, more merlot than the indian red of the tie, still manages — through the medium of the lips — to blend in with it. It's taken sixty or so years; but the man's finally got some dress sense.