perception is always precarious

 

 

 

Degas´s Wax Horses                                          

He left the ears off
one, the drippings like scar
tissue forming the breast sinews,
clinging to it a beautiful deformity;
another the jaw ajar
revealing bone death,
stick legs on which all the weight
balanced.
Compare these to knickknacks,
so daring,
on my kitchen counter, for instance;
the wooden cow smiling,
the udders hanging to real life scale would be
like fifty pound tits and still
the cow smiles a black curlicue.
(Art ain’t perfect.)
I know he was working with drippings,
dealing wax is precarious,
but still the ears are ostensibly
not there;
which took nerve to look at
that horse without ears, then
walk away.





      Michael Rectenwald


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