Ode to Picasso's Ageless Embrace

One fine

Chelsea morning

In May

Trekking along

The sunny side

We encountered

Yellow blossoms

Westerly we progressed

Placing a wisp or two

In the air

Behind the Christ Church

Drawn towards

A vision of

Late in life truth

I asked – do you remember –

Walking into

Gagosian first --

Standing in front of the

Blue black winged starling –

I asked if you could solve the riddle

Of the inner-most sanctum

And then we stumbled

And found ourselves

Before Theban gates

Reading a text

Chromatic

Of dream texture and

Pointing generally towards

Two spirits of single flesh

Oedipus and the Sphinx combined

In chalky Mediterranean light

A unifying vision of

The bicameral mind

Seen through the lenses

Of a compound eye

Cubism

To higher power

Brought

Beyond the

Limits of mere frame

Each image composed

Of constituent parts

Yet selves themselves

Wrought by

Greater devising

Onto another plane

So pictures form clusters

And clusters form vines

And in this way

The world in its entirety

Climbs and entwines

In the mind

Of the aging Master

Arthritic in his studio

but unsubdued

By spirit of sparagamos

deeply infused

While obsessively retracing

the steps of

Les pas a deux

Of contrasting pairs

Like Maestro

Emerging from

Behind the easel

Only to find Monstro

Standing proud

Upon the stairs

And in the Gallery last

Suggestive of

Valedictory task

The Iberian Adam

And his loose limbed madam

Disport in utter abandon

Grappling without repose

Let peace everlasting

Be good and be damned

For genius notwithstanding

There's not a moment to lose

For losing oneself

In heedless embrace

Thus reaching a place

Beyond understanding

Where we may discover

The imperishable truth

Of you residing in me

While uncovering as no less true

Me deep inside of you