norwegian winter
DESCRIPTION
Combining poetry inspired by a painting at the Arnot Art Museum with an image of water, sand and sunTRANSCRIPT
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I’m unnerved.
A fleshy-faced Vikinglocks his penetratingeyes with mine.Porcine jowls frameno-nonsense lipsthat silently whisper:winter is no joke.Wrapped loosely in blackmatted animal pelts,his rotund, naked bodyripens in my nostrils.Between thick fingers and thumba smoking branch transformsinto a soldier’s gun.
I’m afraid.
I remember last night:there must have beenten or more of uswho heard him sayhe had shot someone,asked me, if I had evershot someone.
His riveting gaze assures mehe is not as harsh or coldas the cloak of darkness that lays heavily over him.A hint of a chuckle, a gleam.
I laugh.
Norwegianw i n t e r
Poem in response to the paintingWinter: Man with a Burning Branch, 1993
by Odd Nerdrum (Norwegian, b. 1944)while remembering the evening
before with Marc and his students