Picasso

by Anna Ruiz

Picasso had his way with me last night,
He rearranged my face and I awakened
To an altered reality,

My left eye was like a Star of Bethlehem
Shining in the back of my head,
That I may see where I have been,
To be assured —
To answer my question —
Have I have been walking along the right path?
And I was blessed with 20/20 hindsight,
An optical illusion,
How the darkness meets the light.

My right eye was just under my left foot,
Gathering dust from the ground I still walk upon,
Even as my soul wanders into an ever-present,
Dark infinity, just beyond my tenuous grasp
Into daybreak,
Into the songs of a meadowlark,
Into the blades of grass, my homecoming
A masterpiece in vibrating colours and mystical
Sounds.

My nose disappeared altogether,
It clung to the seascape just ahead of me,
Breathing deep from the ocean,
The deepest blue,
And the brine had marked its passage
Along the bridge,
And I saw a starfish bow, and
The songs of kelp were turquoise, with
Smatterings of fuchsia.

And I wondered what he did with my lips,
Were they sealed in some blooming desert?
Amoung the parched white bones of frightened creatures
Burned by the sun?
Were they hanging on the cross,
Painted in the timber?
Silenced for eternity?

Picasso rearranged my face last night,
Freed my lusty soul.