Abandoned Perspective

April 07, 2018

Pablo Picasso, 1910, Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier), oil on canvas, 
100.3 x 73.6 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Link to the work at the MoMA


It happened 
one biting season
winter
dressed in Paris chic
with long grey
days
and 
glass
over
filled
with
unctuous red 
that I saw
what I had been missing
in my years
of seeing
only in
clarity
black and white
thick as smoke
that filled the sidewalk 
seating
sealed in
thick yellowing plastic
to keep the chill 
and cafe patrons
outside

The truth was
I never had an interest before
it seemed so random
lazy in fact
and I certainly did not understand it
Yet after 
a strenuous afternoon
pondering the light
in otherwise dark
art
my legs so exhausted
earth squeezed 
spongy
beneath my feet
that I made my way 
to the Pompidou
(to catch the last hours of le jour gratuit - Modern Art is not so offensive when free)
Ported away 
by tubes and ducts
an external circulatory system
where
patrons - 
all random blood cells
stream up into the heart of this
pumping place
each carrying our own
purpose
for being

Students
families
and those like me
I suspect
wandering this world
in search
of our own company

Here 
is 
where
found
the understanding
that always eluded 
me

There is movement
that moment
between blinks
the second glance

It is a dance
captured
in the flirting
of time
not a come to stand
still
life

La Fée Verte
has taken me
by the hand




*le jour gratuit - the free day, often the first Sunday of the Month
*La Fee Verte - the Green fairy (Absinthe)

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2 comments

  1. This reminds me of my days in the V&A in London, and it's so true - sometimes one particular something in the museum will just jump up and hook onto your mind and things are never the same again. This phrase though, I just love - I identify so well:

    dressed in Paris chic
    with long grey
    days

    ReplyDelete

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