#55 Dangerous Liaisons

She held a
mirror up
to herself
then turned
away from it,
almost as if
this brief
liaison with
her own flesh
held too much
danger to be
confronted.

#54 The Future of Statues

for Vincent Ponka

It was the
elegance of
the diving birds
that caught his
fancy. That,
& the fact the sea
was made
from stone. He
closed his eyes
& let the sky
stream over
him. The clouds
contained a
hint of snow.

#53 The Month of the Grape Harvest (1)

Open window.

Many men
in bowler hats.

The same man
over & over.

Looking in.
No looking out.

A sealed room.
Hermetic fusion.

September.

#52 The Art of Conversation I (1950)

No chance
assemblage. Too much
structure in the
way the blocks
are stacked. Look
at the base. REVE is
real & not
a dream. Foucault
describes it
as a landscape from
the battle of the giants
against the gods;
but if that
is so then
someone has come along
afterwards &
tidied up. Added an
after word. Re-
written history.

#51 Perspective II: Manet's Balcony

Whether it be
fête or
theater

or just

sitting
on the balcony
watching
the funeral
parade pass
by

Manet
insisted

his family
always dress
to reflect the
occasion.

#50 The Red Model

This
is a painting
I have
wanted
to write about
for some
time

but
the need to
leave my feet
at the door
for fear of
dirtying
the carpet

has
always
constrained
me.

#49 The Lovers II

Memory does not
hold its
shape. Blurring
occurs. Always tricky
getting the light
right & how
much of the
initial energy signature
of love can be
retained? Things
change, return as
indifferent faces
in different
settings. What lasts
is how the lovers
shared a space, not
how they looked
at one another.

#48 The Central Story

The hand
at the throat
that holds
the veil in
place. The small
euphonium. A
closed suitcase.
Death &
departure.

As a
reference point
it would be
hard
to go past
the central story
that the face
of Magritte's
mother
was covered
by her
nightdress
when
her body
was taken out
of the River Sambre
after her
suicide.

Case
closed.

But what
would we find
if we
opened it?

#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.