The Painter

THE PAINTER / Stephen Sandy Obsession with surfaces still held an odor Of life, even if a shameful or despairing life. How could he be anything else than his Encounter with the world? "The flayed ox" appears And reappears, like the mirage it is. The meaning Of that yellow rent in the sky remains the captive Of its color, sure. It was as if each argument Was a facade without interiors, like a stage With niches, doorways leading nowhere, engaged columns Engaged without a purpose, all for show. The painting, like a regatta, suggests a progress Of ideas, but it is only play, however earnest. "Goodness knows what he was looking at," The innkeeper would say in confidential tones To patrons who might improve his story. "The nude Women were bathing in some other place." The Missouri Review · 22 ...