“Fortune is a woman…”Machiavelli
Michelangelo painted beautiful hands.
If he was a guest at my dinner table
he might quickly study hands,
hands lifting wine glasses
hands serving bouillabaisse in steaming pots
hands arrnging yellow tulips, blue iris in a glass pitcher.
If Leonardo ws a guest at my dinner table
He’d bring his leather bound sketch book
draw the tulips as though he were drawing precise muscle mass
study how man’s body went together
cut into my cooked chicken and fish
as though dissecting cadavers.
If Cezanne was a guest at my dinner table,
he’d glide through the front door,
embrace tulips and iris with the eyes of a still life painter
looking at flowers from all angles,
Then show us parallel worlds.
If Degas was a guest at my dinner table,
he’d pastel the iris and the tulips,
place them in a diagonal plane at the feet of a dancer.
If Georgia was a guest at my dinner table,
she’d paint one iris on a 40 x 60 canvas and call it non-sexual.
If Frida was a guest at my dinner table,
she’d paint the tulips in a jungle,
herslef in the middle of it,
with amondey seated on her shoulder.
If fortune is a woman, and I fortunate enough
to entertain such esteemed dinner guests
I would furnish the art supplies
and skip the bouillabaisse.
2010 edited
