I’ve held the laments of strangers in my arms.
They come to me because of who I’m not.
Like with like, in vacuo, a meeting
of invisibilities.
So cold they are, shivering
in my frozen dreams,
and they never dare to speak,
to break
the brittle silence of the high night’s
secret hours.
When the moment’s right,
their powdered lips brush lightly
on my cheek in desiccant goodbyes.
Soon their journey will be mine:
to the inland, to the beautiful
horizon that came before all oceans,
to where the first dawn’s light
is bleeding still into burnt sienna skies.
artwork
Although the image is Martian, I think it suits this piece. Ancient Mars I was generated with the Visual Evolution Engine (VEE) from a NASA image, composed of photos taken by their Martian dog, Rover. The evolution takes the original back billions of years, to a time when there was water on Mars. The Martian figures and the Martian home were evolved and overlayed separately. The original image compared with the changes VEE made is here.
Wow. Wow. Wow. My socks would be blown off, but I’m wearing flip flops….
Thank you, glad you liked, and it’s a good thing nothing importune was blown off. When I put on my electrical engineering head, I know what flip flops are, and here in the austral underworld, it’s thongs. In any case I can’t see either of them blowing away. 😸
wildly compelling image!
Oh, glad it made an impression and thank you for the feedback. I’ve been doing the illustrations for my Meerkat Press collections coming out early next year, and hopefully they relate to the relevant story or poem (in my mind at least). It’s kind of overflowed into all my artworks
So there’s background from my life experiences somehow in this work. I’m Coetzee’s Slow Man and it’s taken me a long time to get there in the visual arts…
writing is like breaking a wild pony, drawing is like looking into its mouth – let’s get to it.
Love the comparisons, and they make intuitive sense.
cheers!
Those first two sentences – like hands on either side of my face. Listening…
So good.
Glad you liked, Audrey, and your writerly skill is showing. 😸 Hard to say where thought bubbles come from, but yes, I’ve had experiences like that.
A wistful poem…the first two lines are tremendous. And I also love your use of line breaks. I’ve noticed your artwork is becoming more figurative of late….I approve. Wonderfully subtle colours in this one! x
Thank you NIkita, I always appreciate your thoughts. My current mindset is why do I bother with anything? All my efforts are pointless, derivative and repetitive; I have no idea what I’m doing; I’m weathervane flotsam lost at sea. Mind you, I’m sure coffee will help.😸
I find a good sleep always helps but this feeling of ennui is commonplace at present .