Art Gallery

Forget the shadow hunched on a narrow umbrella

Forget the soul deboned, the skeleton arching through sand

Forget the soldier kneeling on diaphragm, the breath-held ribs

Forget the city map gaudy with daydreams

Forget the confetti spilling from newspapers

Forget the china broken on the ballroom floor

Forget Christ curved in a nest, unhatched

Forget the Roman girl who left her head in France

Forget the dead flies, Nouveau tissue wings

Forget the Taj Mahal bathed in brass machinery

Forget the children muddied in slow water

Forget the Everglades sticky on his arms, the oars

Forget the sleeping body, its patchwork of temperatures

Forget the sacrificed woman gurgling up clay

Forget to prepare for the rape, her quivering veil

Forget to warm a colorful mask for your face

Forget to warm the black words with magenta

Forget the aluminum fluidity of sorrow

Winner of the Andrew Bergman Award for Creative Writing from Binghamton University.