Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2, by Ann Bar-Dov

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, by Marcel DuChamp (France). 1912.

Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2
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I am the Nude Descending a Staircase
Carefully, gingerly, all my parts
Shooting and fluttering off,
Each to its own.  It's all me,
And yet the first does not recognize the last. 

The Nude Descends.
She keeps on going.
Each colour shades into the next.
The echoes spread above her. 
Who is she?
She is me,
Once again in my element
And then beyond it.
Again.  And again. 
She is not there,
And she is there.
She is echoes of herself.
She is all the echoes,
One at a time and all together,
Crack of thunder containing all sound. 

Do you hear it?
 
Here is what I want:
I want that thunder recognized.
I want those echoes seen.
I want the shadings
To meld and move into three dimensions.
I want all the angles appreciated.
I want all the frequencies registered
On an instrument
Delicate enough to catch it all,
Strong enough to hold it all,
Clear enough to contain it all
With no pollution
And no distortion. 
 
A clap of thunder
Is just one sound.
A nude descending a staircase
Is just one person.

Ann Bar-Dov

Ann Bar-Dov is a former Brooklynite who has made her home in Israel. After almost 42 years, she can finally say that she writes both prose and poetry in English and Hebrew.