I like the concept of ekphrastic memory, Ken, & how it works out here..
A dreamscape riding the night mare with this painter...; & the personal interaction...
Doug
On Feb 26, 2014, at 9:21 PM, Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> AGE SLIDES UNDER THE DOOR AS OIL PAINTS
>
>
>
> I needn't shave to see my future in the purple scream.
>
> On TV between shows about predatory big cats
>
> there's a commercial for a scooter chair,
>
> the old fart motorchair for aggressive men sick of their lives
>
> who race down the middle of the boulevard
>
> in Long Branch, New Jersey, trying to stage
>
> insurance collisions because they need a Medicare supplement
>
> or maybe because they might just be killed and end it.
>
>
>
> I awaken and, before my daily filter kicks in, I am in a scooter too
>
> and (sing) Do You See What I See?--
>
> I am a paint-by-numbers copy of Francis Bacon's
>
> "Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X"
>
> with the ghastly old dude seated on a scooter throne
>
> looking to play bumper cars with Cardinal Borgia
>
> because they both are waiting for death and it's been
>
> years since Borgia, at least, can remember
>
> what it feels like to get laid.
>
>
>
> That makes me feel just a bit better
>
> because if my dreams are not much fun,
>
> at least Bacon's must have been rarer than overcooked dog.
>
> For how else could anyone bear to face a day
>
> with that inner face, truth telling, open to the world,
>
> a purple splotch of skeleton, bleeding rage from every pore,
>
> forcing some sucker priest to take him out in his scooter
>
> to witness his final prayer, slamming at full force on the downgrade
>
> into the back of a tractor trailer to end this holy farce
>
> and send home the painter, his work done for the day.
>
>
>
> Ken
>
> I saw the Bacon "adaptation" of Velasquez' painting in the Hirschhorn back
> in 1993. "Unforgettable" doesn't quite cover it.
>
Douglas Barbour
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