Having Bummed a Smoke Outside of the National Gallery, Though I Have Quit<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if it rains, a closed car at four. And we shall play a game of chess.\u201d<\/p>\n

–Eliot<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trees stick out<\/p>\n

their tongues<\/p>\n

at all of us squatting<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

at their trunks while wild onions<\/p>\n

fall limp at their tips<\/p>\n

like month-old mohawks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Candy-coated tourist<\/p>\n

buses park toe to heel.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, sushi<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and a slipped-off<\/p>\n

boot and socked foot<\/p>\n

in the lap for lunch<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and noodles and beef alone<\/p>\n

in Chinatown last night.<\/p>\n

Will another woman ever<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

place her handbag on the grass,<\/p>\n

commando-crawl to it, finger<\/p>\n

the stalk-eye of her camera,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and snap twenty shots<\/p>\n

of the Capitol dome<\/p>\n

perched upon her slouched<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

purse like a Pope\u2019s mitre?<\/p>\n

Would C\u00e9zanne study this team<\/p>\n

of Segways rolling past<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

with their unmanned eyes<\/p>\n

and over-ripened helmets?<\/p>\n

Would Rousseau replace<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the mannered Samoyed<\/p>\n

with a jeweled collar and thin<\/p>\n

leash and hook up<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

this albino squirrel<\/p>\n

begging for a cheese danish<\/p>\n

instead, stroking it wild<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

as the boy in a harness<\/p>\n

pulling with all his strength<\/p>\n

against his mother\u2019s thick strap,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the Washington Monument<\/p>\n

distending from his hunched back;<\/p>\n

Modigliani wouldn\u2019t have<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to stretch the mother\u2019s face<\/p>\n

beyond the long length<\/p>\n

it has become.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The stoled woman<\/p>\n

reckoning a Claesz<\/p>\n

in the Gallery<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

asked no one out loud,<\/p>\n

\u201cwho would eat<\/p>\n

a peacock pie,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

all its feathers<\/p>\n

in a vase beside it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all of those blue eyes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

flirting with you,\u201d<\/p>\n

I responded,<\/p>\n

\u201cand I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morning at The Met<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–after Nauman\u2019s Eat\/Death, <\/em>Gonzalez-Torres\u2019 Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), <\/em>Warhol\u2019s Twenty-Five Colored Marilyns, <\/em>and Noland\u2019s Bluewald<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the fluorescent sign<\/p>\n

I try to read as DINER,<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EAT <\/em>ripens orange<\/p>\n

as coiled eyes<\/p>\n

on a stove<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

inside the D\u00a0<\/em>and H<\/em><\/p>\n

buttressing DEATH.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And piled beside it,<\/p>\n

hard candy<\/p>\n

like Cabochon-<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

cut jewels<\/p>\n

begs us to take<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and eat this gift<\/p>\n

and thus diminish<\/p>\n

its ideal weight<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of 175 pounds.<\/p>\n

And we do\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

first, the woman with rainbows<\/p>\n

on her fleece socks<\/p>\n

for three butterscotches.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then a bald man fingers<\/p>\n

a cinnamon round<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and whispers a prayer<\/p>\n

I am close enough to eat,<\/p>\n

and I bow my head<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and close my eyes with him.<\/p>\n

We all eat and eat and eat<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(the spicy, the sweet)<\/p>\n

like what took the artist\u2019s love<\/p>\n

from him and wait<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

for the replenished pile<\/p>\n

his statement promises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Twenty Marilyns nod and lip<\/p>\n

from the next room, lemon hair<\/p>\n

tunneling across her foreheads,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

mint eye shadow<\/p>\n

and collars still lingering<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in the roofs of our mouths.<\/p>\n

Oswald, paper-punched seven times,<\/p>\n

his body reddening, would curse us as fools<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of art if the Flag were not<\/p>\n

stuffed into his mouth like a gag.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After Thanksgiving Dinner<\/em> by Louis Lozowick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A stack<\/p>\n

of bread<\/p>\n

teeters<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in a loose<\/p>\n

shuffle like<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a loaded deck<\/p>\n

of cards. Iris<\/p>\n

beards swell<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

from the pot<\/p>\n

of soup. The man<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

with an ash-<\/p>\n

tray chin and<\/p>\n

pool-pocket<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

eyes suspends<\/p>\n

his fist over<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

dinner like a sledge.<\/p>\n

The other men<\/p>\n

in line<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

aren\u2019t thankful<\/p>\n

for him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After Matisse\u2019s Studio, Quai Saint-Michel<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Canvas within<\/p>\n

a canvas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He stepped<\/p>\n

back<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

from his chair<\/p>\n

and easel<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

thus reducing<\/p>\n

her,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

leaving the hip<\/p>\n

and thigh<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

charcoaled<\/p>\n

close enough<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to twirl<\/p>\n

her hair<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

at the kiss<\/p>\n

of her elbow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The ink pot<\/p>\n

clutches the table.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beside me,<\/p>\n

on the museum bench,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a baby screams,<\/p>\n

the mother<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

shooing and cooing<\/p>\n

the infant<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

then plopping<\/p>\n

out a breast.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even the mother<\/p>\n

shudders at first.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Overheard Next to deKooning\u2019s Evacuation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the figures,<\/p>\n

torsos, torsos?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah, I guess so.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cTeeth, teeth, typical<\/p>\n

deKooning teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t give them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cA horrible head.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAh, that ruins it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe rice fields ruin it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cEarly Black Period\u2014<\/p>\n

one show, his breakthrough.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSee the crack?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMust be a board.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd his late work goes back to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, look, a penis,<\/p>\n

and that eye, a vagina.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cRice fields, workers, right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having Bummed a Smoke Outside of the National Gallery, Though I Have Quit   \u201cAnd if it rains, a closed car at four. And we shall play a game of chess.\u201d –Eliot   The trees stick out their tongues at all of us squatting   at their trunks while wild onions fall limp at their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3458,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334\/revisions\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}