#47 The Song of Love

Perhaps a
piscine Rodin
this mer-
couple made
from the same basalt
as the shore. They
could be
singing. Is this
the song
of love? (& again
the ship the sea
is sailing on.)

A scene
that does not
seem to sing of
anything except
the Byzantine archi-
texture of
de Chirico's
mind. A stage-set
for a theater
of the absurd.
Pinned on a wall
a glove, a blank-
eyed bust. Green ball
in front, rooftop
in behind. & yet
this is the
siren song of
love that
fifty years before
made Yves Tanguy
jump from
a moving tram

that made
Magritte
say he saw
thought made visible
for the first
time. Making the
possible
improbable
but not
impossible. Pictures
within pictures.
Songs within
songs. Of
love. & other
strangeness.

#46 The Companions of Fear

Yes, I know my
shift finished
four hours ago
at midnight. & no,
I didn't get the
instructions wrong.
I've been doing
what you asked,
researching
the properties
of the chitinous
exoskeletons
of this group of
owls. Have done it
how you asked
me to. Started by
taking a small piece
of the carapace
and examining it
under the electron
microscope. You
were right. I found
fractals instead of
feathers. But I
didn't expect the
contradictions. That
the sample would
be warm & the re-
action of the birds
so cold. I thought
they would be
angry. It was
their silence that
frightened me.

#45 The Therapist (revisited)

for Nick Piombino

I know that
asking you to lie down
on the couch while I
sit across from you
is a bit old-fashioned
but humor me, it comes
from doing my studies
in Vienna. The bag
beside me contains a
peregrine falcon whose
purpose will become clear
later on. The wall behind?
A piece of trompe l'oeil
I asked this Belgian painter
to do for me. The sea is
so soothing. It's where
we all came from, it's
where we all desire
to return. Why? Think
amniotic fluid, think your
mother's lullabies. & the
birds inside the cage? At
first they're something
for your mind to focus on
while I explore the skies
they used to fly in. As we
progress, I gradually get
you to transfer to them
all the concerns that keep
you planted in the earth.
When that is done we set
them free. The final act
is to release the falcon.

#44 The Domain of Arnheim (1)

How can
a giant bird

lay
such

small eggs?

#43 Memory (1945) (1)

The
introspection of
a severed head.

#42 The Age of Enlightenment

I took it to be
the effect of altitude
on particles of
light. Their
reaction to it.
The young were
not so sure. Spoke
of signs,
of revelations. Un-
able or unwilling
to accept
that even when
the air is thin
the aspects of a face
can have a
separate gravity.
The balloon
I offered up as
proof that hot air
rises. They understood
that. Enlightenment
is of an age. Is
not an Age of.

#41 The Therapist II (1962)

Adding the image
is a form of
cheating. It is
a way of letting
Magritte do
most of the
work. You give a
small misleading
glimpse, a kind of
precis without
the precision
of the original. Pre-
tend to read his
mind, inaccurately
fitting the painting
to your description
of it. Still the shill
from sideshow alley
though now you
work the avenue
in front of the
Gallery, promising
that inside will be
found creatures who
are half man, half
beast. & once the
money is collected
don't care that
small birds give
the game away.

#40 La Lunette d'approche

When asked
what colour he
would use
to depict infinity
Magritte declined
to answer. "No
point in asking me"
he said. "Today
my birds are green,
yesterday they
were blue. I have
no idea what they'll
be tomorrow. Best
ask Georgette. She's
the one in the family
who has the better
distance vision. She'll be
posing, peering past
me; & suddenly
she'll say 'Instead of
a cabinet in the wall
behind why not a
window? It would
make the room
seem so much
larger, & I could
look out to the sea.'
& she's right, as
always, so of course
I do what she asks.
But only in a painting,
& with an infinite
blackness still behind."

#39 Familiar Objects

Floating objects are a
common enough theme
in the paintings of
Magritte. Over-
done it could almost
be said; but not quite
since suspension
requires a suspension
of belief, & each painting
is refreshed & re-
freshing, creating
its own unique
atmospheric pressures,
a re-awakening
of surprise. Here
we have a singular
form seen from
multiple aspects; & in the air
the singularity
of multiple objects
that have no right
to be there, held
in suspense by
a single held-
in breath.

#38 Homesickness

If these were
disparate objects
then their
juxtaposition might be
provocative

but here they share
a commonality, each is
equally out of place,
as in place as
the other.

If the lion
had the man’s wings

then this might
be allegory,
the lion a gryphon,
a mystical creature
as he who is now
Mister Commonplace
gazes out off the bridge
as people have done
ever since the
first tree

fell across
a stream. That
is the thing
about bridges,
wings or
no wings.

The lion
without a cage, the man
within one. Reality
is always
somewhere else. Only
the bridge exists,
hiding inside
the yellow fog
of melancholy.

#37 Eternal evidence

The curve
of the jaw-
line is
the motif
that follows

the slightly
misaligned
body
down
past
the breasts

past the eye
of the navel
& thatch-
work triangle
of the crotch

to where
kneebone &
tibia top are
parallel
patterns
above
the final
amputation.

The feet
stand alone.