Distractions, by Margo Davis

Guernica, by Pablo Picasso (Spain) 1937

Distractions  
                viewing Picasso’s Guernica in Museo Reina Sofia, 2018   


A long white room where we cluster, hunker, stare overly long  
yet not long enough. Few look up to gaze in space. A compact crowd 
of tourists not shouting out in mother tongues. No vacant-eyed  
 
tour groups body-blocking the painting with elbows as a guide   
drones on. Fluorescent lighting glints a toast, to your fate. I am drawn   
to those few who blink. Distress signal, or does this seep in?  
 
How could it not?  Disembodied sounds stone-skip across lips  
from around distant corners. Accents  misunderstood, barely heard.  
Expressions I can’t recognize. To walk now would be shallow  
  
or abandonment. Worry lines dig into blank faces. What is this  
chaos  I find myself  witnessing? Horses’  mouths exercise their right  
to yawn or grimace.  Then one by one each spell is broken.  
 
The mind sieves. One then more wander off. I have freedom 
too, staring intently around a shoulder, through a portal provided by  
hand on hip. From a doorway, the departed drop what couldn’t   
 
be contained. My shoulders sag, eyes widen as each whispers,  
smiles, or complains- it would appear- then pushes off. I suspect each  
mind moves on as well. Or am I the one who can’t focus here?   
 
Perhaps this is too painful. Do they simply seek the bano?   
Why must I study instead their evaporation? Surely any viewer is cut 
to the bone, too. We move forward, all of us, into the past. 
 
Margo Davis

Houston retiree Margo Davis is grateful that art and literature are readily available online during this pandemic. Twice nominated for a Pushcart, Margo’s poems have recently appeared in Mockingheart Review, Cordella, Snapdragon, Odes and Elegies: Eco-Poetry from the Texas Gulf Coast; International Contemporary Art Exhibition 2020 in Art Gallery Le Logge, Assisi; and TransCultural Exchange’s Hello World Project. And several times in The Ekphrastic Review, which makes her smile.