Defacement
- Defacement1983, Acrylic & Ink On Wallboard 25 X 30 In.
Basquiat scrawls & scribbles, clots paint across
the back wall of Keith Haring’s Cable Building studio—
two cops, keystoned, pounding a beat, pummel
a black face—scape goat, sarcophagus— uniform-blue
with sticks. The night Michael Stewart snuck on the tracks
& cops caught him tagging a train—THIRD RAIL
DANGER LIVE VOLTAGE— taught him better
than to deface public property. Choke hold. Keep NEW YOKE
CITY Clean. [End Page 288]
Give those men a PABST BLUE
RIBBON, a slap on the wrist a meddle
of honor. Basquiat produces BeatBop, black
on black vinyl—VOCAL. TEST PRESSING.
INTESTINES. TARTOWN RECORDS. ear.
All revolutions 33 1/3. When Haring moves
up & out, he’ll tear down that wall careful to get
Basquiat out intact— in Haring’s bedroom modeled
after the Ritz ¿DEFACEMENT? sits, saved
like a face, framed—
Kevin Young, who was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, is author of Most Way Home, a volume of poems. He teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Georgia, Athens. A graduate of Harvard, he recently received the MFA degree at Brown University.
