In Bed. A Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop.

 

The homestead El Caserio i Bizkerre lodged upon the wall

      has a large gable’s end symmetry, slightly

skew whiff in the canvass that encompasses it. I wonder if

      she’s painted herself from within to without

 
 

Where she stands now, a cut out dark silhouette, on a patch

      before the facade of splotches, daubs of windows

doors, heraldry shields, terraces, hatches. Two doors, right side

      sharp, left a blur but can i enter, what will i see

 
 

      She knows she’s concealed from me?

what will i find, dusty jars, a winding stairway, creaking

      floorboards, a chest of drawers, which i will open

to secret treasures, but no, i am without with her dark silhouette.
 
 

      What is that luminous blob suspended above

her head by almost invisible silvery strands of arms embedding it?

      All in the foreground, the sharp, the blur, paths

to each door, blotches of rockery, smudged plants, dollops
 
 
Of green lawn. Overhead, a red angle roof, in the sharp, crows

      swarm in a blue sky, where it blurs, branches

stretch to entangle, notch the gable corner in weird distortion.

      Beside this painting is another, a naked Madonna

 
 

A faceless oval she kneels, arms clasped behind her sleek black

      parted hair, her armpits bared to reveal the taut

of her breasts, her curves in orange & gold dust.

      Is it she who waits behind these doors?

 
 

      When night falls the sea is a distant death

is The Bed that is a Tree hewn from the stump

      of an olive tree, drilled as a bed

post, as a mould for the rest, around which the chamber
 
 

      Was built, waiting for us to enter?

She is more beautiful than her painter & we know it

      but perhaps if we enter together

the splashes of paint will be softer than our creaking bones.

 
 
* In Bed. Italics. The Bed that is a Tree. Kim Lansky. Italics. The Odyssy. Book xxxiiv.

 
robin2705

 
Robin Ouzman Hislop, born UK, a reader in philosophy & religions, has travelled extensively throughout his lifetime but now lives in semi- retirement as a TEFL teacher and translator in Spain & the UK.
 
Robin was editor of the 12 year running on-line monthly poetry journal Poetry Life and Times. In 2013 he joined with Dave Jackson as co-editor at Artvilla.com, where he presently edits Poetry Life & Times, Artvilla.com, Motherbird.com.
 
He’s been previously published in a variety of international magazines, later publications including Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N. Carolina), The Poetic Bond Volumes (thepoeticbond.com) and Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (a recently published international Anthology of Sonnets). His last publication is a volume of collected poems All the Babble of the Souk available at all main online tributaries

 

www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes
www.facebook.com/Artvilla.com
robin@artvilla.com
editor@artvilla.com

 
goodreads.com/author/show/Robin Ouzman Hislop
http://www.aquillrelle.com/authorrobin.htm
http://www.amazon.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
www.lulu.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
https://www.amazon.com/author/robinouzmanhislop
http://www.innerchildpress.com/robin-ouzman-hislop.All the Babble of the Souk

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