H. Contemplates the Old Masters

Picasso: Belly laugh from a boy with no belly.

Kandinski: "That's a pretty nice pirate ship, but I don't see any pirates."

Michelangelo's "Last Judgment": "Look! Look!"

And then we came to Dali, the melting clocks in the desert, a strange sky blooming:

Him: "What's wrong with the clocks?"

Me: "They are melting."

Him: wordless, unsmiling,

Me: "Which means time is melting, too."

Him: Seems to be bracing himself as a small weight climbs up on his shoulders. It is

a piece of me, I wouldn't know
what to call it--the beginning of
a long commerce? failure?--I am not
an Old Master.

Him: White legs disappearing into the green
room.