Painting with Words by Bill Waters

Nude Descending a Staircase 2, by Marcel Duchamp, 1912.

Painting with Words: Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2

swing of shoulder and swivel of hip,
click-clack clockwork cubism
in stop-action slo-mo descent,

a futurist modular manikin
clothed in earth tones,
part knight and part nun,

all angles and lethal edges,
slicing air and crushing conventions:
duchamp’s incendiary

nude
          descending
                               a staircase.

Bill Waters

Known primarily for his Japanese-style micropoetry, Bill Waters also writes ekphrastic poetry, found verse, book spine poetry, light verse, and all manner of short prose. More of his writing can be found at his blog Bill Waters ~~ Haiku (http://bit.ly/145diBy) and his “blog-within-a-blog” Bill Waters ~~ NOT Haiku (http://bit.ly/1NZSyRo). Bill lives in Pennington, New Jersey, U.S.A., with his wife and three cats.