The Dutch Astronomer Daydreams of Being a Painter

Kit Kennedy

Nocturne jumpstarts spheres
compass within reach globe
spins under trained fingers
he grasps the world
Candles play upon a woman
dress tipped with ermine

Staged differently
maiden
blue & white
pitcher of
cream
warm & cold
slanting light
luminous
pigment

What treatise
what argument
will he propose
Her heart grander
than lapis lazuli

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Dialogue

Kit Kennedy

Remember the painting
horizontal scroll 5-1/2 by 11 feet wide enough for
today's news
background serious fog/aftermath of smoke?
In the right corner red/black spheres suspend
mismatched eyes of an otherworldly Siberian husky.
One eye could be a fiery sun other, confluence of
shadow.
Below, disks barbed wire. Calligraphy people leave
behind
or artist's signature over-brushing the past. The sum
of undelivered messages.

You remember, don't you,
when I turned the postcard
of that painting on its side,
calligraphy now on the left
block letters of a chop
our names caught in wind?
Two spheres: fire suspends
above void. Cries of crow
language of distance.
You said, Let's wait
birds will settle into night.

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Irony in Silver

Kit Kennedy

My wrist holds an ongoing discourse
with the Greeks. A silver cuff etched
with narcissus who the gods made flower-like.
Time softens the remembrance of his hubris.
He's turned low maintenance, reliable.
Season by season becoming more feminine.

Few remember his spurred lover, Echo.
Anorexia fed upon the desire for that vain boy
she became less than shell. We lower-cased
her. Let the wind have her
and thought we were done.

Now, he's the seasonal visitor. She resides full
time.
Out of mercy (or humor) transports the names of his
manifestation - daffodil, jonquil, Chinese sacred
lily,
she who word and air invoke daily.

 

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