Elevator
by Steven McCabe
I read a quote by art critic Robert Hughes comparing painters: There is more death in a Gustave Courbet portrait of a trout than Rubens could get in a whole Crucifixion…
Then I heard a song by an artist we saw in concert. Who spun magic, jewelled webs we fell into after chasing each other through twilight circumstance. Twilight and traffic.
The labyrinth ruled by Janus one level below.
The shadows jousting on the street didn’t remind me of your fingertips, or your January dancing, or your honeyed cake.
I didn’t make that joke in the elevator.
Carried, like some tragic Pieta, into the stream. The playing of a wooden flute sounding in the reeds. My hands flat against your skin. The temperature slipping.
Forbidden music within your temple as quiet and still as polished stones. Awash in the fragrance of whispered moments. As shiny as a silver bracelet, a tunnel, a hook.
I’m not even sure I heard anything.
Did such music ever exist.
I’ve never wondered how my fine shoes, sewn of ancient parchment & soft as a silk purse, got so wet.
Nor have I contemplated Gustave Courbet’s
Trout.
Or the absence of all that is not
Trout.
While gazing into the eye of the fish,
A future sun.
Credits for original images: The Trout by Gustave Courbet, 1873. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958, based on the play by Tennessee Williams starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. Skyscraper and Tunnels by Italian Futurist painter Fortunato Depero, 1930. Pieta by Michelangelo.
I do not own the original images or claim copyright. I have created new images for non-commercial purposes of commentary under Fair Use provisions of copyright law.
poemimage 
Absolutely gorgeous crash of images and text – I really like the odd places your work puts me emotionally.
Thanks Richard for these thoughts! I’m glad the work has that effect. I must be in an odd, not even, place emotionally myself when relating experiences such as this. Love the idea of images and text ‘crashing’ or in a state of ‘crash.’
I agree with the comment from RG above.
Your work plumbs the depths of my mind, bringing recognition of the longing for something, and the resignation of doing without. The images portrayed in your words are wonderful.
Good morning mn. Thank you for these thoughts. I woke up with ideas of editing this text and found your comment. I appreciate that this speaks to you of your experience and appreciate how you described the experience itself. For some reason I remember Richard Brautigan’s line ‘In Watermelon Sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar.’ Looking for this quote I was reminded (in Wikipedia) that ‘trout oil’ features in the novel!
Steven this reads as a different poem! I enjoyed both I hope you keep those ‘drafts’ or what I regard as poems. It would be interesting to see the ‘raw’ nestled in with the ‘polished’
Thanks for your thoughts Heather. I see that I have 24 revisions. Maybe 4 of those concern the images. I see that WordPress gives one the opportunity to ‘Browse’ revisions. Yes, it might be a good thing to revisit at some point.
Richard’s comment expresses my experience perfectly. Wonderful work, Steven.
Thank you very much Karen.