now here is sky erudite
trellised with lilies
and scythes of cloud
felling valleys and generations entire
here are buttes of my youth
in shapes of ships and sleeping chieftains
auguries spelling war
from Tucson to New York, Window Rock to Kandahar
…
a judge’s eyes unheeded
aloof behind a balaclava of hubris
pale in deed
pale in inaction
when I was a child
chided was I, too, once
by a whale in this sky
by a sea in this desert
keith anthony francese
1.14.2015
*This poem first appeared in Four Chambers Presents: Poetry and Prose for the Phoenix Art Museum. Inspired by the painting, All Happy With a Fat Kid (Todos contentos con un niño gordo), Brad Kalhamer, 2000.
