Carnival of Tears
       

"I made two slits in the painting,
        which later made me think about Picasso's Weeping Woman.
For no particular reason,
        I did what I have done many times before

with the excess paint from other works on my brush,
        watered it down, held it over the slits as it dripped, weeped."
Slits that look like the blanks, the empty blue sky,
        where the eyes should be in Modigliani's portraits,

or the residual traces of blood-black mascara
        at the end of a fearful eyelash in a carnival of tears,
Max Beckmann lurking in the shadows,
        the black birds melting into night.

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Copyright © 2017 Richard Milazzo All rights reserved
from Ghost Stations
Tsukuda Island Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission