self portrait

I have written before about my artist friends kari and hector rhendindi, and how we send writings (sometimes inspired by spam) back and forth. It's happening again, and this is where we are.

kari started it with a self portrait in beet root and cheese and tomato and no anchovies please and cardboard.

From: kari
To: hector
Cc: dreamroom
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 5:58 AM
Subject: self portrait

how about a self portrait , she thought.
yeah whatever
get a life , art warrior.
sure as shootin'
there was plenty to beak off about
and perameters had to be drawn
and so did i.
i used an old beet root butt that i found in the compost
and an old pizza box.
it was not too bad of a job
perhaps Andy Warhol may have liked it.
perhaps The Voop von Poop Gallery may want it
for their washroom.

From: "dreamroom"
To: "kari"
CC: "hector"

Subject: Re: self portrait
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:33:51 -0700
----- Original Message ----->

cool like the cool blue glass shard
that I found at the new park
which is an old dump
It was near sunrise
or maybe sunset
so I gathered my strength
and cut myself

I dipped a blackberry leaf
into my blood
and painted a twig
I used the twig
to paint a tree
with which
I painted
the sky

but it was blue

I must be royalty

King of the Scoop-da-Poop
Doggy-wag-my-day-care

Jack the Ripper might have liked it

----- Original Message -----
From: hector
To: dreamroom
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 6:52 AM
Subject: Re: self portrait

warm unlike the yellow ice smoked
in doorways of unwanted love
which is the big downtown
in the big sunlight on the big street
I felt small inside my skin

I found a quarter in my lint corner pocket
dropped it on the sidewalk
with the forgotten things
once important enough
to be carried
across any threshhold now defunct

all the people are willing to know me
if only for an exchange
of a recycled dream
once lit up inside the head
of a caterpillar looking for the painted twig
once used to paint a skyward tree.

From: "dreamroom"
To: "hector"
CC: "kari"
Subject: Re: self portrait
Date: 28 June 2007 08:37 PM

from the rocky caterpillar
a cocoon
a chrysalis
and then a moth or spider
with legs like crooked piano strings
and wings the size of Jupiter

what was that light
that burned deep
in the hint of being
of never having been known?
or was it forgotten
in the end of the dream?
out cold on the wet pavements
of uncaring places

and what of that quarter?
what will it buy?
not an elastic sweater
to hold in the weeping heart
as it sags
and goes to sleep hungry
with a feast laid out before it

and still
in the doorways
the unwanted
love only themselves
while others care not for them
with puffs of yellow smoke
and sleight of hand beneath
the ashes and sack clothes
of the wanderers
spread thin again