Free, by Amanda James

artwork by Baron Batch (USA) contemporary. used with permission of the artist.

FREE
for Baron Batch

1.
Tell me
about your art,
Baron. Tell me 
about the way 
the frenetic,

ecstatic colour
leaves the pallet
and moves 
through you

like a ribbon curling 
out of your finger tips 

or a scarf spiraling
from a magician’s 
sleeve

—lime to yellow
to turquoise
to fuchsia.
Baron!
Can you
hear me?

2.
Tell me about the canvas
unstretched, unstitched, thin--

FREE

as a summer cricket
playing it’s wings’ violin
in the wind--
can you imagine?
An instrument 
in your body?


3.
You said you like to warm up 
with elephants,

you are comfortable
in elephants. 

They are
your love 
language. You’ve found
a home in them, 

and I think there’s something
to these untethered creatures lumbering 

out of your canvases

ready to greet each outstretched hand 
with a trumpet of colour. 

And not trumpet
like Miles, but trumpet 
like Kermit.

High every night!
of the week! making beautiful!
music in the thick!
New Orleans heat!


4.
Baron!

Once upon a time,
they pulled you away,
angry for the art 
you were making

in public places, 
printing words
like “graffiti,” like 
it was a bad thing. 

The bad 
kind of art, 
Baron. 
Not the kind
deep behind 

museum walls
and mandatory donation
boxes placed prominently 

next to gift shops
and cafes 

where you can buy Monet’s
for $50 on a coffee mug
or a glossy poster ($200 
if it’s framed).

5.
Baron, they charged 

you. Fined you. Tried to tie
your hands up behind 
you. 

But you shifted.

You twisted. 
You pushed up against it–

and started 
making 
art anew.


6.
You even made art
with the officer
who arrested you.

Invited this man into
your painter’s home
and asked him to create.

Did you see something good
in him, Baron? 

Some unsung
something?

Something beautiful but quiet?

Something under 
the thick
flak jacket?

7.
Dear Baron,
tell me about
the gentle souls
you see and seek. 

Are you driven

to goodness like 
some men are
driven to madness?

8.
Now with tape you hang
your boundless pieces

beloved elephants, 

expansive skylines, 

giraffes stately and playful,

even a beloved bounty hunter,

all over the city 
with the word FREE

because you are, Baron.


9.
And, Baron, I think 
that FREE
might be a tip of the cap
to the law, who couldn’t 
hold you back. But. But.

I think more than that,
well, I think it’s a sign
to us, as we clamber 
for your canvases 
in a surreal 
scavenger hunt 
around this beautiful
city

—that you don’t 
do this for the money
and the money doesn’t 
do it for you.

Amanda James

Amanda James is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Writing Program. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and son. ​

Discover more about Baron Batch and his work here.