Poetry: “Beheaded By Fence Line”
August 4th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
by Christopher Raley
i
Their faces beheaded by fence line grotesque laughter,
contort a bent double to disappear them then release them
back to exposure’s buzzing yellow of dirty night.
She sits in watch of small frames detailing mimicry without
and marks them a record in tickling her cynicism.
I stand in kitchen slider view of them bray back shaved scalps
and strangle long necks for a tip-up glint of darkness.
Quiet rests her pleasure she forces no perspective,
but flattens lines of emotion in comforting remove,
so let the bombard next door without a verb.
Endless is the violence, and delight is without end.
ii
I pull the drawers for snack and pill
as lamp clicks off and her in bed.
I check the locks against a thud
and turn out light until the dark.
Her warmth is oblivion next to me,
and blanket pulled up too cold
to be but fear cutting a line
at the base of my neck.
For her I am a child.
I receive the blind worry
of what may be evil
with eyes open in darkness.
“Graziella” by Lefebvre
August 3rd, 2009 § Leave a Comment
by Matthew Raley
"Graziella," Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, 1878, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Here is something thoroughly beautiful to start the week. I know nothing of the heroine depicted in the painting, other than that she was the subject of an obscure 19th century novel by French statesman Alphonse de Lamartine.
But the painting speaks for itself. The brooding atmosphere is set by Mt. Vesuvius smoldering in the background. One wonders what the girl is meditating upon — not her fishing net, clearly. The whole composition is elegant and finished, right down the detail of the red petals under the girl’s toes answering the petals in her hair.
