Green and Blue
At the distant edge of the universe
is the first green
Blue is the color of our dreams,
whether we remember or forget
Unclaimed wishes on the moon
lie like unripened fruit
The blue tiles in my kitchen,
blue-jays on grey walls
Indulge in the triple greens of summer,
guac, limes, Margarita edges
Speak to no one sleep in the hammock’s
wide net release into the Blue
A Sidelong Glance: After viewing Erik Van Lieshout’s work at Mass MOCA
So who are you Erik Van Lieshout
So “prominent and provocative.”
and who do you think I am
lying in a sexy sprawl, so close
to your scribbles, portraits of you and yours
the red, white and blue of your internal
existentialist trip to the USA,
I’m so close to your edgy videos:
you, your politics. Is Bush in denial?
you ask in, Guantanamo Bay Watch, 2005.
Now I’m asking, why am I spending time
inside your world? Order me something
Erik Van Lieshout, play your medicated angst ridden
instrument, and stamp paid, done, on my hands.
My writing frenzy has gone on too long.
I want to rant in my own political rage
or meditate next to your New Mexico sunsets.
You demand this, The artist creates an intimate installation
that incorporates the viewer. That’s me, Erik Van Lieshout.
Keep me in your Brown Cafe to become One
with red and yellow tulips,
One with an old woman wearing a scarf, an apron, bagging
a kilo of potatoes.
So what if my life is a sidelong glance.
Mare Leonard has published chapbooks at 2River,Pudding House, Antrim House Press andRedOchreLit. She lives in an old school house overlooking the Rondout Creek in Kingston, NY. Away from her own personal blackboard, she teaches writing workshops through the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College.
Bindweed Magazine 