GORKY'S CARESSE


	There can be but one answer, one easel, one lessened
	To extract one swirl, one splotch, one patch of heaven
	In an eye, a rectum, a floating nose, hazed, dribbling, drained

	There can be no answer after the dada denials of denials of genocides and reason
	There can be but paint and weight and shine and light from giant inlets for morning
	Worship, if the rains and clouds could but bother competing NY artists 
	Stilted drivers, a new search for sense, after Hiroshima, after Hitler, 
	Stalin, famine, avarice, the depression, public works, roller coaster ridden 
	Bullet holes in worship temples of paint, thick, vibrant, mixing, melt.

	He was Armenian no less, no more, no press, an orphan, confessed, no core, no jest
	He was Russian in a mirror, hair trigger, poetry reaching mustache, airs
	He could swing with a chameleon, be with child born to other wombs
	Channel women barely past teen spleens, be all Picassoed, all Cezanned, crooned
	Stretch marked American canvas, New York, flashy epicenter, bought, sold

	A dull drum beat destined drivel past paint splashes, squares, rounds, crossed lines
	Fainting memories, unformed teeth, like a half born heart, half dead
	Revving revolutions without a song, brushing aside stroked loathing
	Masked sacrament in every walk up loft, Jazz spread, dark corner
	Stairway thrusted post card unsigned, unnamed, groping flagellation

	Players and layers of shaped moral imperatives frustrated in loud colors
	In silent majesty, dispersed, wheat and chaff in parody, self-cursed
	More tragic that mere biography, detestable destiny
	To paint is to live in unlit hallways emergent 
	The excreted, the exorcised, the damned
	Frozen relics of pious struggles to return.

	Bedros Afeyan
	April 23, 2010
	on the Train to Didcot from Padington, UK


--
Dr. Bedros Afeyan is a theoretical physicist who works and lives in
the Bay area with his wife, Marine. He writes in Armenian and in
English and also paints and sculpts. Samples of his work can be found
on the web by clicking on his personal web pages at:
http://208.177.152.139/