Baltimore Museum of Art's - Art in Words project

I’m honored to be involved in the Art in Words project at the Baltimore Museum of Art – a new audio tour where local writers chose work from the permanent collection and write nontraditional responses. Here’s a list of the participants.

Rafael Alvarez (fiction/ televison, The Wire)
Dan Fesperman (fiction)
William Henry Lewis (fiction)
Michael Salcman (poetry)
David Simon (fiction/ televison, The Wire, Homicide)
Justin Sirois (you know)
Elizabeth Spires (poetry)
Christine Stewart (poetry)
Chezia Thompson Cager (poetry)
Joshua Weiner (poetry)
Olu Butterfly-Woods (poetry)
Laura Lippman (fiction)
Michael Kimball (fiction)

**

I chose a Giacometti sculpture.
This is what you get:


YAKTSIWIYWALT


you recognize this
sorta sketch of a man
as withered as beef jerky – as humble as bone
half finished & half rendered
you think you know him
& then ya don’t

pointing, he gestures, “look, look at the half finished people who’ve come to see the art – how in the world did you convince your father-in-law to tag along? Isn’t he missing the game?”

when Giacometti debuted this sculpture, three separate people were injured by its protruding finger, all of them in the eye, all of them on a Monday. This is why most museums, and even hip galleries, are closed on Mondays

you already know this
so I won’t insult you
with a literal translation

the complete life
is a mosque of sketches; unfinished dates
and out-of-office messages, sub-prime parking jobs and iPods filled with iThangs; spilled & downloaded & streaming & horded

I’ve sketched myself
again & again
on the white paper of stomachs
on the tomorrow of a remodeled kitchen
& we’re never complete

so then

on & on these sketches of men & women
come to see the sketches of others

relentless engines searching for hurt