Poem: Two in One

A poem about love or a poem about art? You choose. I know, I know...your head hurts making decisions. So I'll give you an incentive, a gift you surely cannot refuse: two for the price of one! Max Ernst's The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus before Three Witnesses and Leonora Carrington's Green Tea (La Dame ovale). Think away my friend!

Max paints the old memories,

You watch his cold glee,

The crew’s sly glances,

As he cuts a divine scene.

Brushes chisel away,

They’re carving Our Mary;

She stretches out of stone

To beat this holy child,

One disobedient Christ

Who suffers Max’s irony;

His Mother’s judgement day.

The picture tilts and turns.

As walls twist in vertigo, 

You stumble to the studio

Grabbing a fresh canvas

That handy zimmer frame.

Tempera a foundation,

Soft brushes caress your face.

‘My turn to paint the past.’

Arcadia in Astraea’s fields.

So neat, so house-wife tidy

Your Looking-Glass idyll,

A fairground in formal gardens.

Wrapped in cow’s colours

Cast as a sarcophagus

You chew on old dreams,

Enjoy a mummy’s sleep;

While Vagina Dentata 

And her medieval arsenal 

Keep the wild horses at bay.

Calvary your playground,

You ride a friendly carousel.

Max shouts from the yard.

Wrapping yourself tighter, 

Drawing the hedges closer,

You dream of virgin mazes,

Maids who milk mad stallions.

His step an earthquake, 

Max stands at the door.

Walls flap like sails in the wind.

Your halo falls to the floor.