A Night for the Lady by Joanne Arnott

Author:Joanne Arnott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ronsdale Press
Published: 2013-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

newly immigrated to Canada, 2002, our basement apartment:

as the diabetic is

to the addict

so the nursing mother is

to the stripper

striving for balance

left side

right side

left side

if milk and insulin

are emulsive and arrive

in waves

this ritual alternation

forms the larger tidal pattern

of our days

some say we choose in a spirit state

each of our incarnations

i wonder at his decision

i would like, at ten years of age

to waste away

to become liquid-obsessed

to thirst wildly

to pee frequently

to stare hard at school clocks

in desperation

in a new country

in a new century

he shows a new doctor

his numbers, faithfully recorded

all about the doctor

excitement is stirring

he wants to discuss all

the awful possibilities

in the diabetic person

a kind of fatigue called

new beginnings

Artist at work, Seattle, 2000:

“use once only and destroy”

he reaches up

and tapes the syringe

onto the newborn rectangle

on his bedroom wall

when the card is full

he mounts it on canvas

then buries it

in glue

in fabric

in paint

imaging, first

calendars of days

then his own face, his torso

taking a shot with lace

items of clothing transform

into needle-strewn cityscapes

friends’ faces appear

on rippled carpets of needles

it is like a forest floor

in here

if this

weaving of words

is a tapestry

warp is the artist

weft the diabetic

transverse the man

four decades of diabetes elaborated

mapped and painted

a perforated man

quietly wielding and lacing

stitching his whole life

into the frame

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.