Elizabeth Switaj







  The Farm (Joan Miró)





  fingernail leaves darken

  sky until linseed

                  saturates   indanthrene

                          Only the church

                        is solid roots

  embalmed in egg white clay

                        dried above canvas wagon

                        over cornsilk rope

                              My hair

                                    invisible as our fourth wall

                        and others without red lines

                                        See our ladder dog & trash

                                                Green pots outside

                        await rain under grayless moon

                        

                        

                        

                        

      

                        

                        

                        

  De Chirico's Uncertainty (of the Poet





  She is headless & enhanced

                    painted with a branch

                    overwhelmed by bananas

  growing from her hips

  & her dimpled ass

                      She is his

                      sculpture We are thankful

  for extra stone white flesh

  in the stomach folded in the back

  She no arms or legs

  Behind her: arches & a train

  Wedding Feast at Cana (at Padua (

          Who is married here

  but halo to my head?

                        Aluminum foil & leftovers

                  haven't been invented yet

                      Sainthood is expensive

      Even miracles demand

                            servant girls with braided hair

  to fill amphorae & pensive monks

                                conical cups















  Not a Haiku





      without you

  even my coffee

  hints of urine

















  Because His Funeral Was A Week Before





  What could I know of loss? Father

  was on mother's dresser before

  I ever made it home

                        What could I know of loss?  His body

  was his own incense

  no offering, no sacrifice

  from me

            What could I know of loss? No camera

  sent collapse

                while I slept Lack of meds

                from profit docs

                                    couldn't bring us to war

                                    or change the way we fly

                                    What could I know of loss?

	

	

	

	

	       

	       

	       

	       

	       

	       

	

	

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