wounded BULL sketched on a bar-nap

wounded BULL sketched on a bar-nap

Of all Picasso's works
i have seen the drawings the paintings
some with both eyes placed on one-sided faces

regarding us in absolute staring mania

the abstract collages of outrageous cubist colours
some with explanatory titles some not
i remember most the sketch on that bar-nap
the size of an overlarge canteloupe
shining like some large lucent egg of intellect

A bull’s head it seemed three times normal size
almost as large as Senor Pablo's ego

No connection to body or form

Somehow tuned to the universal

At the start - the sand in the bullring
was free and clean
Much like the images of that Spanish Miura fighting BULL
This BULL'S large black bulk
ready to snort and chargeLike the 'MINOTAUR' of myth - a primal force
Then after more absinthe
the image changed in ‘blurred haze’

Lines on a cocktail napkin
A head lying there and i imagined it could be
a Dagon tribal mask of fearsome spirit
or maybe it was a Neanderthal species of sacrifice
or some succubus waiting to steal my soul
or Yorrick's skull held by an invisible character
or a death's head enigma symbolizing Nazi SS nightmare

And i stared at that representation
wondering if souls intersect like lines
coming together from different dimensions
of some vast unknown hypotenuse

And as i stared the BULL seemed to pulse
but i could not touch those black furrows
cut deep into that smooth yet white linen wildness of napkin
stroked with black lines
a jagged creature or intentional desecration

which tried to release that which was buried or resurrected in blood
on that sandy bullring floor

The head – massive and then suddenly melting
deteriorating just a dark umber hole
its tongue severed which is where and how
all artists must begin in soundlessness

But we still hear the wild bellows of this beast
if only in our minds eye

For what is an artist?
if he is not to catch lightning

if he is not to create thunder

if he is not to freeze time in unravelled light

if he is not too create and then magically transform

For what is an artist of realities gained from absinthe?
lying there – a bull suspended on a bar-nap
lying there – a bull with its open wounds bled raw
lying there – a bull changed by a thousand different visions

It is a black outline at the start
marked forever by potential power and bulk
leading to lines that could be anything
stretched and protruded
beyond form as if these features
were a bird's weightless bones
a simple miracle
soaring upwards to clouds
of incomprehensible miracles

Black lines on a white linen bar-nap
Our minds trying to comprehend
your ongoing creations
that so move us all.