Saturday, January 27, 2007

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2


The following is a poem I wrote this week. Indisputably, Marcel Duchamp's (1912) piece Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 acted as my muse for this poem.

Madame Duchamp's Art Trip

Marcel intended no accident
when he left his blocks on the stairs.
But the morning his mother wore
a black and brown argyle sweater,
she descended from the mezzanine
and slipped on a stacked block.
Arms flailing, blocks flying, feet fleeing -
the descent became an unnatural scene
filled with obtuse and acute angles
that enlightened Duchamp's vision
of graceful cubic descents.

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