Between Acts
for Erica James & Penélope Cruz

i.
art goes for the jugular
with a knife every time

like the worst news
to get its message out
to get at that message

with every delicate instrument
by every delicate means

language, lines or brush
colors, scalpel, mallet, chisel
light, shade, shadows

without end though
it goes for the jugular

with knife, it takes life
to examine it, to analyze it
in what fine detail

to weigh it
slice by slice, ounce by ounce

like flour, sugar, lard or rice

ii.
I want to put a barrier up
between her and me

I want to build a barrier back
amid familiarity

though it is impossible
for the hand of time
to turn back to when
we two were strangers

I find knowing her or having her near
strange taste of it, sense of it
not to my taste, distasteful

dislike having her near
contact, her pressed up against me
I wish negated, nullified

I want a wall to be in between us
to come between us

strange and friendly
friendly and strange

unable to woman
the man I am or can be
or want to be

iii.
only the knife that murdered a man
blood washed away
like blood off a hand
now used to dice carrots

murder weapon
without ever turning up
or showing up in court
used to prepare a meal

neat murder, neat meal

same knife, same hands
blood in between
to wash off, to wipe off

between acts

iv.
able to attach and to detach
like what had buttons and no longer does

able to go between these conditions
at the drop of a hat almost

what subterfuge, what deceptiveness
she’s capable of, what artifice

capable of such switches before my eyes

what of what she might choose to do
when and if my back is turned


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
9:58 p.m. 12.06.08