Poetry

An Artist and his Muses/A Picasso Exhibit/Vancouver 2016

by Shelly Wozniak

Piece by piece he took her apart,
leaving only one letter of her name
hidden above his signature.

Nose of a pig,
eyes that cannot possibly see,
the convolution of her contour
flattened by his hand
to a pointless stroke.

Her mangled chest and hips,
reversed, reassembled
to something easily understood.

Resemblance more than real,
he would say,
compelled him to fracture the female.
She has become a conversation piece,
stripped down to the period.

If her mouth
were in the proper
place
I am sure
she would
scream.

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