ART OF EUROPE

poetry | prints | cine | home

[Miranda, The Tempest - Waterhouse] So, Cornwall, April...

1) germans! - it's no joke y'know, and yet i'm amused... the consolations of foresight i guess - 2) - i wonder if i shouldn't write to a yankee general, thanking him - o god bless america i'd say, for steadfastly keeping them germans under military control - 3) - but i get ahead of myself - 4) - for now i'm eight, or maybe younger, double-holstered in colt 45s with ivory handles. i got a winchester rifle and a horse tied up yonder. i'm fighting the u.s. cavalry, laying ambushes, springing surprises, shootin' em dead. bang bang, you're dead. like clint eastwood later. (i just wanna be an injun, i wanna wear that head of feathers. i wanna be a maasai warrior, i wanna win that jumping game) - 5) - and now i got a longbow, i got a crossbow, i got gunpowder and a sword (but what the feck to do?) - 6) - yeah yeah, walk away, turn the other, call me jesus, stick me on a cross... feck that! gimme that there musket, you coward, i'm going out, all guns blazing - 7) - i die like bonnie and clyde. i go to heaven. i spend all day out riding with butch and sundance, shooting germans for sport - 8) - alone in the dark, the flickering screen... has it ended? the war film that was on? i must've fallen asleep. i'm awake now, thanks for asking. all livened up, ready to go - 9) - omaha beach y'say? jesus! wow! let's roll buddy - 10) - i'm taking a walk up fifth avenue, i'm taking a walk in central park... spring sunshine, magnolia trees... - 11) - i bin practicing da maasai haiku mama, i bin gone away too long - 12) - hey mama, mama, i got them manhattan blues a'blowing in mah brain (i remember the snow falling. joyce, last page of the dead. and it's duh wuh, duh wuh, what's the matter child?) - yeah, life's a saxophone jive, ping, lights out - 13) - {and_i_can't_follow_that} - hey mama, mama - 14) - i'm trapped in my apartment, there's nazis at the door... - 15) - (i spy through the peephole...) it's all lugers and leather and jackboots and hats, monocles and swaztikas and whiplash on spats... i don't like the look of them one tiny little bit. i think it's time i found a new apartment (i think it's time i moved) - and i'm running already, out the rear window (as per leibniz, like a twat) and running scared but running and stumbling and running and running and faster and faster, like dustin hoffman in the marathon man, like cary grant from the crop-duster man... until finally i turn a corner... off west 42nd street, into broadway. and then, wow, i'm in time square suddenly, a space that's safe i think. i decide i need to sit down. the guy next to me on the bench reading this paperback by a jay dubya dunne. i think nothing of it. a girl walks by with a mona lisa smile. un memento i want to say. but my synapses aint working right. and i'm still out of breath. i sit there for an hour, maybe two hours, maybe longer, i dunno... i watch the world go around, and around and around and the last thing i remember is of feeling kinda dizzy, light-headed. i wake up in a hospital. what the feck's going on? let me outta here. i aint sick... i walk the slow walk home... i stop by for a chinatown takeaway, see a hudson river sunset... i'm clicking the fast-forward button at the tv screen, cruising channels, opening a bottle. ah, casablanca on hbo, that'll do. yeah, play it sam. you must remember this... - 16) - phew - 17) - what a day... caviar sandwiches and a case of champagne - 18) - the phone rings. i answer it (i know that voice)- "hello..." it says... "the name's bond... james bond" and then, quite unbelievably really... "how can I help?" - 19) - obviously i can't go into details... i spend the day packing bags, making calls, surfing the web for first class flights to london - 20) - and it's goodbye new york city - 21) - howdy england - 22) - how do you do? i'm very pleased to meet you, i'm sure - 23) - cor blimey mate, top of the morning, g'day and hiya - 24) - i meet james by the byron statue, bottom of park lane... tea and muffins at the dorchester, martinis after - 25) - we meet again... drinks at the savoy followed by a meet in a basement across the river with m. (we talk the secret talk of tachyonic ray guns, and of the new mary poppins) - 26) - m says he'd like her played by sally field... and me and james agreed - 27) - (we just wanna be in a movie where we beat the feck outta tom feckin' cruise) - says james (i'm nodding, like tom hanks in the wrong movie altogether, like jim carrey in the wrong part) - 28) - i wake up... - 29) - i sleep - 30) - i wake again, and so it goes

<< march | may >>



& then it's the wake to work, the walk to the printer,
to photoshop and the click a button razzamatazz and print, the canvas prints


& born in april =

april 5th, 1732 jean-honore fragonard
april 6th, 1483 raphael
april 6th, 1826 gustave moreau
april 6th, 1849 john william waterhouse


& died in april =

april 6th, 1520 raphael


[Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - Seurat]