Agile Fe{e/a}t of Dreams in Picasso’s Acrobat on a Ball, by Grace Lynn

Acrobat on a Ball, by Pablo Picasso (Spain) 1905

Agile Fe{e/a}t of Dreams in Picasso’s Acrobat on a Ball

I imagine you, years from now, perched 
on a box, muscle-spent after flexing 
iron bars. Spotlighting a circus behind-
the-scenes teenage wordless 
exchange. Get up from being 
idle, a spitting image of your future 
self will say. Practice the acrobatics 
of doing nothing, you will rest
to counter. In the bustling 
tourist trap of Musée d’Orsay, I rush 
to stammer before you, strumming 
the guitar-taught tendons on wrinkled
whisker-black hairs covering 
my father’s hand. Narrowing 
my stance into a gymnast’s 
beam, I wobble from front 
foot to back. Watching him 
watching you as a way to desire
to become the sky or the sea 
of you, agile acrobat preparing 
to hop off the private world 
of a sphere. As if your body could 
fashion its own wings. One day, half
a grab-bag of your genes will balance 
XX with a lover’s XY, pairing up
in order of size like rain boots 
on a doormat to evolve 
a child who will chromosome-
mural a chance coordination 
of you, wiring and firing nerves 
into a patient rock of bare-bones, 
pharaoh-firm-footed after 
your weightlifter onlooker. You will grow 
up into an upended barbell holding onto 
a fragile moment in your Atlas- 
like pose. Lithe arms bent 
above your wafer-thin frame reality 
reminds us to outgrow. Those sky-blue 
stockings like your infant onesie. 
Your girl will mirror you, experimenting 
herself in stability on unstable 
surfaces. Teetering on delicate 
pinks, pearls and blues 
to shape a new feeling 
out of nothing besides 
air and space. Resolved to be 
a human globe lingering 
in consequence within Picasso’s Rose 
Period punctuated in ellipses 
by the faraway 
family manufacturing grace 
or fluid statues of dreams 
out the everyday. 

Grace Lynn
 
Grace Lynn is an emerging poet and painter who lives with a chronic illness. Her work explores the intersections between faith, the natural world, art and the body. In her spare time, Grace enjoys listening to Bob Dylan, reading suspense novels and investigating absurd angles of art history.