​Aspuria, by Lisa Rhodes Ryabchich

The Guilt of the Gold Teeth, by Jean Michel Basquiat (USA) 1982

​Aspuria 
  
I’m wearing my Black hat. 
I’m the skeleton man.
I got a wide mouth, & square teeth
Like wood dentures. 
I’m in Gumbo land--
My scarecrow legs can’t stand. 
I’m stung stoned--
I got strange arms & spider fingers
With No palms, but they take me walking.
& my emaciated eyes tell me 
My jail cell number is E10467E--
So, I drip, drip, paint on canvas &
My gold-teeth guilt bedraggles me.
I see a White-Faced Death--
The funeral caretaker is watching me.
I got an Al Jolson face, 
Heroin legs & skinny, bloody feet.
It could be the year 1440, or 1441. 
I’ll figure out later which.
The birds fly sleeping--
So, money is shit in red & black.
I am the rebel @ Ang. 
White faces nose around me.
Picasso would have let me breathe--
& Give me money, money, money,
& Give me peso, peso, peso,
All I remember is Neto, Neto, Neto.

Lisa Rhodes Ryabchich

Lisa Rhodes Ryabchich teaches poetry and screenwriting at Westchester Community. She is the author of poetry manuscripts Breaking Out of the Cocoon, 2021, Opening the Black Ovule Gate, 2018, and We Are Beautiful like Snowflakes, 2016 all from Finishing Line Press (http://www.finishinglinepress.com). She has two poetry manuscripts with CyberWit.net. Her poems are published or forthcoming in numerous journals, including Driftwood, Artemis, Medical Literary Messenger, Dash Literary, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a 2016 fellow with Marthas Vineyard Institue of Creative Writing. She lives in Piermont, N.Y. with her wheel-chair bound teenage daughter. Her poetry blog and performance schedule is https://www.lisarhodesryabchichpoetryblog.Wordpress.com