After studying Chagall’s painting The Birthday, the Overachiever decides to write a stinking love poem, by Sandra L. Faulkner

The Birthday, by Marc Chagall (France, b. Belarus) 1887

​After studying Chagall’s painting The Birthday, the Overachiever decides to write a stinking love poem 
 
to best Chagall             and the clichéd new love painted         
bold black        forest green     blinding beige       and red orange       
the hues so bright the sun pales               his weightless body              
accents how he’s the first         to discover the feel of love      
eating the heart from the inside           insatiable breath
every move colored by the texture of a lace collar   
shoes with no tread marks       passion like a small animal
 
clawing 
 
smitten he floats          disembodied and grotesque     
his neck swiveled 270 degrees              like a Tawny owl          
touching beak to lips                his love’s fish-eye opens wide 
projecting the hemisphere of love         on the bourgeoisie rug 
hung on the wall          to keep cold away from the bed                       
he hoots          about the birthday flowers and raspberries                  
picked in the morning clouds  to crown the curd cake 
they're too busy to eat                 hunger for food irrelevant and
 
disgusting 
 
the overachiever smears their canvas   with better metaphors 
for a passion almost two decades old   love that grew heavy     
to meet the earth         and roll in understanding and obligations
frenzied movement and surprise          morphed into habitual consideration
the business of established eros           gradations of black and white
the value of seeing a kaleidoscope        with mostly rose quartz crystals 
the kind of love           that can tromp in a field full of ticks                
and pull them off one by one               waiting for the winter freeze
​

Sandra L. Faulkner

Faulkner researches, teaches, and writes about close relationships in NW Ohio where she knits, runs, and writes poetry about her feminist middle-aged rage. Her poetry appears in places like Writer’s Resist, Literary Mama, Ithaca Lit, and Gulf Stream. She lives with her partner, their warrior girl, and three rescue mutts.    https://www.sandrafaulkner.online/