Rochelle Owens: De Chirico's Vendetta (2020)

[Since the start of Poems and Poetics in 2008, I have attempted to chronicle the perennially evolving poetry of Rochelle Owens, who remains for many of us one of the most fierce and dynamic practitioners of our art as we move across the millennium boundary to embrace her. (j.r.)]

 

. . . . .

 

In this story  detached                           

from the course of events                                                                                    

staged and scripted

 

out of a lost narrative

 

figures in these scenes  appear    

                 d  i  s  a  p  p  e  a  r 

*

My room is a divine pilgrimage

s  c  u  o  l  a     m  e  t  a  f  i  s  i  c  a

 

*

De Chirico stands

in front of a blackened wall

morning to evening

 

evening to morning

painting a town bisected

by a railroad

 

drawing a tailor’s dummy

 

painting vertical/horizontal

lines  shadows of a blackened wall

brighter  darker 

 

squares  rectangles  circles 

a ferocious  s   c   a   t   t   e   r   i   n  g

blood in  blood out

 

spirals of colors pulsate 

moisture and nutrients flow

in your mammalian brain

 

you listen to recordings

of his voice  watch his gestures

facial expressions 

 

an Italian from Genoa or Egypt

 

whistling  humming —

lontano  lontano  his body sways                                                                  

side to side                                                                                                          

 

the universe contracts

                 e   x   p   a   n   d   s

 

blinking in and out

vibrating subatomic particles

fill the dome of your skull

 

disease  famine  torture  war

 

the universe contracts

                   e   x   p   a   n   d   s   

 

a glass of ice water sparkles 

 

his tongue protrudes

from your mouth and you taste

the rain

 

De Chirico shifts his gaze

 

*

When drawing ovals 

his father’s face appears 

                     d  i  s  a  p  p  e  a  r  s

 

audible  inaudible

repetitions of words — you must find

the demon in everything

 

black and hot my coffee

 

white and cold my women

painting trains  empty walkways 

a  toga clad manikin 

 

 

seized with jittery energy

 

he makes a fist phallus

work is a binding obligation

painting morning

 

to evening  evening

to morning  painting a deserted

townscape  painting                                                                                     

 

an armless female statue

 

desire suspended

between observer and subject

 

humming — lontano  lontano

 

audible  inaudible

moving your lips as you read —

contempt  scorn  ridicule

 

writing in his journal

I Giorgio De Chirico amputated

at the knees —

 

the Art dealers

                  s  t  r  a  n  g  l  e     h  o  l  d  

 

painting a black silhouette 

a train emerges from a brick wall

 he makes a fig sign

 

De Chirico shifts his gaze

 

*

In Las Vegas  displayed

in a shop window  a series

of self portraits

 

from a marble bust

back dated  f  o  r  g  e  r  i  e s 

of early works  titled

 

with the name De Chirico 

 

also multiple paintings

from his  Metaphysical Period 

back dated  f  o  r  g  e  r  i  e  s  

 

titled with the name De Chirico

 

also a hundred drawings

of Towers Of Loss  back dated

f   o   r   g   e   r   i   e   s

 

titled with the name De Chirico

 

fake De Chirico paintings

made by De Chirico  work is

a binding obligation   
                                                                                  

*

When at Piazza Santa Croce 

rays of light penetrated the palms

of your hands  when

 

blood congealed 

 

pushed to the surface

                  S   t   i   g   m   a   t   a  

             R    e   v   e   l    a   t   i   o   n    

 

De Chirico shifts his gaze

*

Internal disorders

are neither logical nor illogical

neither are biscuits

 

in the middle of a rectangle

                  

moisture and nutrients

flow in your mammalian brain 

drawing crayfish 

 

oysters  eggs  eyeballs 

 

clusters of bananas 

a bull’s testicles  a scrotal vein

as thick as a finger

 

and there came

a violent spasm in his gut — painting baguettes

 

lying in a coffin box

 

the dome of a skull

              M  i  t  o    T  r  a  g  e  d  i  a

 

and he paints

ornamental letters spelling 

 i   m   m   o   r   a   l     f   o   o   d 

                 

seized with jittery energy

 

you must find the demon                                                                                 

in everything  laughing  drinking 

vino  he draws

 

a black iron skillet

 

glowing particles

of charred fish skin  humming —

lontano  lontano 

 

De Chirico shifts his gaze 

*

At the edge of

a deserted townscape

his father’s house

 

longing thrown onto

the canvas  morning to evening 

evening to morning  

 

an outline shapes itself

                e   n   i   g   m   a   t   i   c

scenes come into being

 

black and hot my

coffee  white and cold

my women 

 

how to view still life  

 

the spasms of death 

to view how life still  his body

sways side to side

 

you must find the demon

in everything  you must find the demon

In broken geometric forms 

 

De Chirico shifts his gaze

 

[NB: Giorgio De Chirico, a pioneer of Surrealism, was greatly admired for his early works; his later paintings from 1945 to 1962 drew the disdain of fickle dealers who influenced collectors. Thus, De Chirico decided to back date the paintings.]