Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Gallery (a variation on Wallace Steven’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird) 1 Contained in eighteen white walls all that was moving were the fingers of the man behind the desk. 2 He was of many minds like the child in the playground with a tree, a swing, a rope, and many other things. 3 To anyone looking in the man was motionless with the seasons. 4 A man and a galley are not one. A man, a rhinoceros, and a beetle are not one, but there is a dialectical relationship. 5 He’s not sure if he likes the art best just after it’s gone up or just before it comes down, or the holes in the wall he fills with whistling. 6 The air conditioning offers relief from the barbaric and unruly weather, but is no place for a blackbird. 7 Walls are walls: why imagine flying when you can easily walk out? 8 I know all the philosophical conundrums. I can tap out a rhythm that’ll turn you on like a Purdie shuffle. 9 When the gallery was closed at night the silence still went round in circles. 10 At the sight of art singing under a spotlight he loaded his gun. He was hungry. 11 He walked to the cafeteria holding an umbrella which he saw reflected in the puddles that he stepped in without fear. 12 When everything’s collapsing, a gallery is no place to make a stand. 13 It was black in the morning. No one knew if it was going to clear. The gallery was empty.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 04:20:14 +0000
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