What Does Cezanne Want Me to See?

Look at the Onions

Standing before still life with onions
I ask myself that cliché query
Not the one concerning

What does Cezanne want me to see?

What is the viewer supposed
To take away from the experience of
These marks Paul Cezanne has layered
On this rectangle of canvas?

No, it is my own cliché inquiry
The one I ask myself as I stand
Before any canvas

I look for what I call a doorknob
A point where I can enter the painting
And look around

To slip off my shoes
Then try his on

I see the onions

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