20th Century

1. nor interest in being either

m

a mother's body not to her own height
a yellow with green with chrome
radiator symmetry anxiety
heated body in parts with
something inconsistent
to heat in the center port
of dependency in which each partition
loves its part, in which
parturition is its height
that which is born, its height
that in the act of its height

 

f

he more finished
mounted on the surface or base of another
father more finished it is
intention to be finished and
to begin

 

d

she is, nor is she
interested in being either
nor summoned directly into one
into one other, but is
two and dark and richly dark
dark that is contained in
& next to herself, her evasion
geometry brown and black
and rich refusal
that is not beside herself
any particular work

 

2. such that qualities of inconsistency

altered by its
placement the lower half
of her body painted

directly on or against
the surface of a wall
will, in fact, her

studio given
in reward of surface
duress and paint

the black lines meet,
largesse (her
height or private

parts framed
to either) radiator
symmetry

such that qualities
of intent frailty
geometrically

rooted she turning
turns his verticals (law
he made) and said

she loved to break now
corners' directional points
of tablet not

vertical but placed
and painted,
loved,

inconsistent
her private height his
"death of painting,"

arms there but
inconsistently, but in place
her 20th century

arms, parts
private gendarme stereo
listing, typing
subjecting
"formal weakness"
such that qualities

of frailty
geometrically inconsistent
with any work painted

directly, is drying
is sure and not
consistent with

finishing
and may change now, is
about to

 

3. she explores how any particular work

is altered by
its placement how any
discrete figure apart
from the bottom half of
its body, where
the legs come together,
or lines representing limbs
of several kinds, though
not attached to a rigor (or
finality) of size, can
utterly collapse
or possibly resuscitate,
can finish or not,
depending upon
the placement of a lighted window
or, in the dark,
an angle where two walls meet

•

if a figure
were in a corner and one saw,
from the distance of an opposite
door, light markings
above the figure, moving
up the angle where two walls
had formed what
an individual mind
might settle upon but
then, moving closer, sees
that what it imagined as
marks are smudges
deposited from air and use
(somewhat indefinite)
that the figure, still being
there, will now have receded,
its impact shifting while its pure refusal
remains formally intact

•

how any particular work is altered by its placement how any discrete
     figure apart from the bottom half of its body, where the legs come
     together, or lines representing limbs of several kinds, though not
     attached to a rigor (or finality) of size, can utterly collapse or possibly
     resuscitate, can finish or not, depending upon the placement of
     windows where two walls meet, if a figure were in a corner and one
     saw, from the distance of an opposite door, light markings above the
     figure, moving along the angle where two walls formed what an
     individual mind might settle upon but then, moving closer, sees that
     what it imagined as marks are smudges deposited from air and use
     (somewhat indefinite), that the figure, still being there, will now have
     receded, its impact shifting, while its pure refusal remains formally
     intact.

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* "20th Century" originally in 20th Century, a+bend press/chapbook series, n. 37, 2000.