share


Picasso (1964)

A canvas comprises a totality of surface

just as Spain is composed of constituent parts,

Catalunya, Madrid, hills and trees, etc.

 

Color dyes the fabric clothing form itself,

as wars and anthems unify

the body politic of mass and volume.

 

Neutral as Switzerland, the palette

confers legitimacy on every pigment it holds,

like a Roman Emperor. Zaragoza,

 

that dusty, lemon-bitter city of rough stones

with its cathedral of saints’ bones

on a plaza lacking any compensatory grace—

 

Zaragoza is but the corruption

of its Roman name, Caesar Augustus,

and so a cohort to historical inaccuracy.

 

This I propose as demonstration

that what matters is not accuracy but acts,

not chronicles but conquests.

 

The body is everything I have wished

to rid myself of through art

and failed. Yet surrender is impossible.

 

My hands persevere in the task of painting

as soldiers long after the battle is lost

carry on their raping of women in the streets.


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Cambell McGrath is an American poet. He is the author of nine full-length collections of poetry, including Seven Notebooks (Ecco Press, 2008), Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Ecco Press, 2009), and In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, 2012). 



READ NEXT

fiction

April 2014

Submission for the Journal of Improbable Interventions

Brenda Parker

fiction

April 2014

Abstract Preparations for experimental work must be conducted without interruption to ensure experimental success. In this work, the impact...

feature

September 2014

Paris at Night

Matthew Beaumont

feature

September 2014

The picturesque lightshow that, once the sun has set, takes place on the hour, every hour, when the Eiffel...

fiction

November 2012

Religion and the Movies

Aidan Cottrell Boyce

fiction

November 2012

When the Roman Empire ruled the world, you could make it work for you. The women, the hospitality. You...

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required