25 or 6 to 4

 

Burdock 70 x 50 x 1.8 cm - acrylic on canvas

STEALING BEAUTY

We find ourselves immersed

in a Bertolucci movie in which

a gathering of affluent bohemians

seem to be going slightly out of their minds.

I don’t know if it’s the weather.

Or if there’s a philosophy behind it all.

But something’s a little off.

A hot summer day near Siena;

Liv Tyler baring her breasts for the artist

who, it will later become evident, is her father.

He works on paper in a swirl of black crayon.

A little girl is beating an olive tree

with a stick, chanting, “take that and that and that…”

Two or three other people

look as if they might strip naked any

moment then recite their favorite obsessions—

a light in their eyes that shouldn’t be there—

on this afternoon numinous with heat. Sweet n’ sour

tangle of grasses and wild flowers.  A whiff

of vineyards, and pot smoke from the front porch.

In villages on the Rhine as Carnival starts up

bands of women roam the streets

with scissors in their hands

hunting down men whose

neck ties they cut off. I had never thought

of neck ties as beautiful before. I guess you

have to lose something silk with stripes or paisley

with tiny fleur-de-lis worked into the pattern

for such a realization to hit you. These days

I keep the survivors zipped up in an old gym bag.

Nice to know they’re still there if I ever need them.