while reading The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & other poems during lockdown
listening to Straight, No Chaser, Thelonius Monk

26 January MMXXI
Fall of Patriarchy 1936 + 85 still-life at 65 prolegomenon

matador with bull a broken love affair in Picasso blue tone rings fire pan destined to cook shakshuka for breakfast so hungry the mouths unfed while ceremonial conflict feasts on bones a joker leaps from the deck of cards gestures toward minotaur horn notes fall before a naked lover transforms to Guernica ashes pour out of volcano lava flows blood read through history books burn art poetry music novels sea waves goodbye splashes freeze on land hard to see leaves grow in pumice basalt crystal string geometry sensibly assists erosion corrosion corruption fertile soil blankets logically woven thread fabrications split infinitives high diving high fiving high living shore to shore mountain tops atoms off center centaurs falling failing fallacies phallic indignation sloping cone seafloor gradation degrades hot angry bull heart amazed cold stony matador merges sword king slave to each other fraught hubris steam rises clouds reason rainy logic languishes while windward winter wards off cold memory strings virtuous sopranos sleepless rhythm

30 January MMXXI
Stinging love 1936 + 19 still-life almost 66 précis

twenty-one years before I womb exited world entered the artist prophesied love is a nettle we have to mow down each instant if we want to have a snooze stretched out in its shadow^[1] sketched out box unleashed child’s blistered skin abandoned in play strung through lots overgrown by stinging weeds black raspberries sun dance closes eyelids thread three score and five wake up wonder what work waited undone done in by languor liquor loves forgotten lovers forgot bells chimed us all home to suburban summer evening dinners as red-caped sun painted fresh cobwebs in dust for night to swiftly wipe away

01 February MMXXI
Water falls 1936 + 85 still-life at 66 thema

rain ends eventually sun coup de grace paints dust cello strings blue minor keys pass to masked woman watches tick metronomically metonymic one foot in front of the other person walks wide space without words cats jump from secret perches scurry pepper curry tree fingers weave leaves endless ballet strung above parking lots part full frontal nude sketch paints figures mathematically inclined toward infinite inertia declined invitation to entropy coup throws cape over scapulae wave strings particle velocity reaches thought gripes grip spine spider stripes sigh sciatic pain runs water falls off nahal cliffs storm clouds peek out coy harbingers flood gulley travel salt sea refills aqua vitae curriculum vita waits downy knees back into corners hips sway ships sail the captain contemplates the rise and fall pattern every journey port thirsty and storm weary worn down each mutinous word deleted twice replaced thrice thrice deleted twice placed down worn web weary storm thirsty port journey every mutinous patter rises falls contemplates captains ships sail away lips back knees salt travel flood coy harbingers peek out run line free infinitely nude sketches grace figure secret ballet coup perches trees pepper footed frontal motion metonymic cellos grace dust patiently paint sun ends rains sweep up time

03 February
Shocked shells 1936 + 85 still-life 66 day 2 climax

one woman shot by pedophile one woman jailed by general one woman sprouting upside down words trail off black dotted string theorizes perspective a woman manifests mathematical gender categorization a woman says no more messianic messes a woman radiates radium glow worms thread night until day rises yawns cat stretches yowls bowl spins silence threads possible toothache pandemic coup recuperates Scheherazade finishes begins pauses video screen ghosts guess desires guitar player head bent blue blends lines of notes notorious repetition floor needs sweeping cyclamens out a window pull cardigan sweaters over heady objections parking lot stripes bloom sympathetic yellow lines books tumble harlequins write jazz Africa heart batter fried on stick it to envelope covered in doodle art philosophy aesthetics do not mail a spider web flapping in breeze under pepper tree green waves seed particles potential patterns music patters a chair sleeps a bed wakes a roof burrows into ground abandoned floor flies into cerulean dreams spider plants spread over baked breads cool dirty dishes pillow sink lifts flowers into hungry colors draw yarn strands to broad horizons explode into hue hewn scarves tighten around turtle necks gasp into shocked shells echo chamber truths true chambers

07 February
Schrödinger’s cat 1936 + 85 still-life 66 day 6 denouement

sea turtles swim seas forest turtles like lakes land tortoises stand sand subject sun hides behind clouded logic object circuits yesterday a river in Jenggot Java dipped crimson dye from batik factory streets flowed blood red today Dhauli Ganga river Uttarakhand India rams glacier against hydroelectric dam kills many long short wave microcircuits interrupt childhood woodchuck hid in shade blues on parade five days emerges today through hedge walls amazed centerpiece unlit candle wick casts shadow on sunny side of the street retreats into hole up for the rest of winter windward object falls a Casanova subject a wooden soldier I killed the golden slave now dances around mistaken Schrödinger cat either alive or dead outside time strings only ticking minds clock two possibilities one pull thread collapse maze around Minotaur bones your strung out self withdrawing into condensed matter black hole powerful singularity comfort and leak muons or two push out silk string trail into the blind new where patiently wearing a cat mask waits a hungry spider named entropy always wipes away rhythm cuts and shell shocked explode clocks

each subject objectified subjective object syntactic jazz cat a tonic gentian piano redux

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^[1] 1st February XXXVI, Pablo Picasso in The Burial of the Count of Organ & other poems. Jerome Rothenberg & Pierre Joris, eds. Exact Change: Cambridge, MA. 2004. p. 91