Tuesday poem #97 : Lola Lemire Tostevin : BeHeaded

1

The black geometry of faceless man against a washed out desert field

Inflicts words conditioned by loss.

The alternative reality of the knife. 

While shaven headed man in orange bears the senseless scar of prostration.  

The viewer’s eye drowns in the iconic artifice of a video.

The heart hangs.   

The image goes snowy at point of contact.

The deep voice of a TV commentator:  Knowing how to decapitate with a knife is an art.    

Touch lost to sleight of hand.

2

In Study from the Human Body by Francis Bacon

A faceless man stumbles against a sky-coloured field.

Heavy strokes of a palette knife drives through where the bestial threatens

To overtake.  Confronts man’s figurative integrity where there is no need

for slaughter or butchered meat or men about to have their throats slit.

No grievance.

No retribution.

No payback.

Only the intimate knowledge of what frees.

3

In striving to restore its evolution each image undergoes

A visionary realm.  Video man offers a clear-cut perspective

Of virile deflagration.  While painted man inspired by

Michelangelo

Velàzquez

Van Gogh

Degas

Soutine

Cézanne

Picasso ...

Grasps the transfiguration of the all-consuming execution

That rescues the senseless from dissolution.

Lola Lemire Tostevin has published eight collections of poetry. Her latest, Singed Wings, appeared in 2013 with Talonbooks. She has also published three novels and a collection of literary essays. She is presently putting the finishing touches to a second collection of essays, and working on  short stories. Several of her books have been translated into French and Italian. She taught Creative Writing at York University for several years and served as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Western Ontario, London.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan