#488 Le Genre Nocturne

The woman hides her head.
Except she has no head. Is 
that what she is trying to 
hide? The wall is a dirty gray. 
There is an oval shape on it. 
Egg? Opening? Mirror? Is 
cracked, whatever it is. The 
presence of the woman's hands 

prevents us from looking past 
the cracks to see what's hidden 
there. The mirror stares back at
us. We raise our hands. The wo-
man hides her head before them — 
except she has no head to hide.

#487 The Two Mysteries (2)

There are two pipes. Or, 
rather, two paintings of 
the same pipe which are 
meant both to please others 
& ourselves, & to make
others pleased with us. 

Do not say there is no heart 
in the work here—its basis is 
the human heart. The sorcery 
lies in an operation rendered 
invisible by the simplicity 
of its result—to make 

the pipe new, but floating in
a natural silence where 
attention to the small details 
extends it more than 
it illustrates it or fills the
void. To make it legend.
Text Sources: 
This Is Not a Pipe, by Michel Foucault
The Ladies' Book of Etiquette (1860), by Florence Hartley

#486 Lyricism

So it doth appear, said
Macbeth, or something
like that. Though he was 

talking about daggers, 
not about pears or people
who resemble them. Even

so, the underlying mess-
age was certainly clear — all 
appearances are subjective.

#485 Le Civilisateur

Three paintings of a dog, all different dogs but the same one painted. All different names but painted under the same name. Somewhere I read that this Loulou was black, but painted white for the occasion. Narrow nostrils, but supposedly had a big heart. So loved by its child- less owners that it traveled with them everywhere, even to the States, its right of passage paid for by a promise to allow the fuse- lage of one of the airline’s planes to later carry a Magritte motif. All things pass, including the in- fluence of a civilizer. The livery of the plane redone to reflect new alliances. & of the other themed air- craft, Tintin will be the next to go.

#484 The Son of Man (3)

I put on
a bowler hat

take an apple
for lunch

& head for
la plage at

Yeppoon
where I en-

gage in 
a bit of

plagiarism by
purloining the i-

mages of Magritte
& putting

them forward
as my own.

#483 Intimate Journal

 

& on the sixth day She
remade man in their own
image, after their own
likeness, but with minor

differences. The one to
carry a briefcase, & the
other a clean handker-
chief, so that he could

remove the small chips 
of stone that would in-
evitably catch in the eye 
when tears didn't come.

#482 High Level Meetings

Certainly the river in the distance confirms that this is up a mountain. & the shadowy figures in the cave are recognizable from their starring roles in many paintings. But the painter who made them famous also caused them to be regarded as typecast; & now, in the years after his passing, their income stream has almost dried up.

Which is where a bit of creative accounting comes in. Get together in some out of the way place. Bring a friend, someone they have previously appeared with but whose bejeweled androgyny still guarantees work in these non-binary times, & who can easily pass as an agent or manager. Then claim inflated expenses when they list this interaction on their tax forms, describing it as a high level meeting.

#481 René Magritte et Le Barbare

The only way to capture Fantômas is to enter his dreams. — René Magritte

The Luftwaffe's first bombing 
run on London; & Magritte's 
first one-man show in that city 
shut down by it. Several pain-
tings destroyed, including Le

Barbare, one of Magritte's many 
homages to Fantômas. This photo 
all that is left to remember it by,
could easily be titled Fantômas et
son doppelgänger, two masters of

the magical, one able to vanish
at will, the other able to make
the invisible visible. Both wear the
formal costume of the magician:
one is disappearing before our 

eyes, of his own accord. The other 
large as life, but wondering if he
will have the strength to make the
barbarians he can't see coming 
disappear before they can arrive.

#480 Les Ombres

Oh how the
shadow of

the pipe falls
behind every-

thing it comes
in contact with.

Except. This is
not a shadow.

#479 The Banquet (2)

Elsewhere it was September
when trees rose behind the
sun; & the guests watching


from the balcony applauded
the striking nature of the call
to dinner provided by their hosts.

#478 The Harvest

I wasn't around to know
which painting was done
first — this one, or Les Bon 
Jours de Monsieur Ingres.
It's the same model; & she 
is either resting after a long 
day holding up her ewer, 
or she is deep in sleep in 
preparation for the days
to come. I'll leave the de-
fining detective work to 
others, just remind the reader 
of the water pouring from 
that ewer with only the 
background fields to soak 
it up. Suggest that, based
on the lushness of those  
fields, the standing came 
before the lying down.