#500 L'Ovation

 
Begin with the bowler hat. It
doesn't have the ebullience
displayed by Astaire in his
rendition of that Irving Berlin
song but can be relied upon 
to fill its allotted rôle with
some semblance of style. Re-
ceives an appropriate round
of applause. 
                       Then come the 
birds. Brought on early be-
cause they're flighty & might
take off at any moment. (Save
for that eagle in a stony pose
somewhere in the Pyrenees.)

The bit players follow — weight-
lifters, lions, fish, rocks floating
in space, dogs, lost jockeys, the
odd unicorn. Elsewhere invisible,
but here most definitely on show.

Now the cloud chorus steps for-
ward to take their bow, bringing
with them one of the many scenes
in which they appear. This one
repeated often, with different 
colors & different media, usually
with a different name, La Joconde,
the happy one, the Mona Lisa.

Which is a hint of what's to follow.
Tension builds as we wait for the 
muse. So many aspects & images 
of her life depicted across so many 
years & now awaiting her final
curtain call. Georgette, sine qua non.

#499 The Organs of the Night

This time the jockey isn't lost, 
just perplexed to find a set 
of wellworn curtains standing
upright on the sand. As is the 
horse, paused midstep in its 
littoral dressage routine. All 
up an unexpected tableau, made
more complex by the fact the

sun seems to be falling rather
than setting. Loss of gravity; &
everything is red-cast as the 
human condition deteriorates. 
Organ failure ensues. Night will 
not see the light of day again.