Black Paint If He Wanted

Paint It Any Color

If you wonder why I
write about dead artists
and no one younger
it is because you know
who I’m writing about

This year going to
the Venice Biennale
didn’t work out for me

Even there I tend
to look at everyone
and still speak
of the dead

Why talk about the living?
They are still
for the time being, alive

There is plenty of time
to speak of them
once they are gone

Here I sit and write
around the corner
from Manet‘s home

It wasn’t a house built
from the sale
of his paintings

It was the house
he was born into
and lived in all his life

a grand city maison
By all indications
he was the
polar opposite of
the artist starving
in the garret cliché

He painted because
he was a painter
He also had the luxury
to paint as he did
with any colors
he wanted

He could use black
if he wanted to

I bet he could have
used real gold leaf
but didn’t