Musing, by JR Walsh

Reclining Nude and Cat, by Pablo Picasso (Spain) 1964

​Musing
  
How much time can I spend on your areolas?
Mixing the colours is difficult without paint.
All I have is water and this splayed toothbrush.
 
Over there’s some callouses. I collect them.
Allow me to punctuate. There. In. The. Vase. 
We rush to conclusions so easily, don’t we?
 
We don’t. Every jealousy is turned around.
An idea envies itself for its novel approach
then buys a gun and a mirror and aims low.
 
A master paints the absence of beauty.
A pinecone drips with sap in the dark.
Irony flattens bent pistils, bulbous stamen.
 
Loads of diversions appear in the condensation.
Draw yourself in – in the foggy feet of burgled
cats without homes. Wrong frequency caterwauls
 
don’t effect or affect biologically until we shed
ourselves of ourselves all by our lonesome 
but we’re here for your tits, aren’t we? Not that
 
darn cat. I assure you, my dear, I’m perfectly
professional when it comes to the models. 
I shall spurt tender black rainbows, a stroke 
 
of jet stream genius. I never! Tawdry lines
floss my stolen teeth. We’ll make beautiful
music together? How absurd! I’m a soloist
 
fiddling an unoriginal image. It’s nothing.
A canvas sings in fidelity.
Reproduction is still life.

JR Walsh

JR Walsh teaches creative writing at SUNY Oswego. Students often ask about his long beard. That's the beard's story to tell. He is the Online Editor for The Citron Review. His writing is in beloved publications such as The Greensboro Review, The Hong Kong Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and Esquire. More: itsjrwalsh.com.