Valium
(Damien
Hirst, painting)
Folded
like an origami bird
my
mind unfolds
to
count the spots—1, 2
yellow
red and blue
3, 4
sparking
on a
color wheel
5, 6
a hundred planets
in a
hundred orbs
around
the sun
I
choose the ones
that
put my mind
my
universe
the
passage of the stars
across
my eyes
to
rest.
Abelone
Acetone Powder
(Damien
Hirst, painting)
White
dwarfs
luminous
and blue
reds
yellows greens
one
by one by one
Rigel
and Regulus
side
by side
before
the end
the
stars await
aligned
in even rows
equals
at the last
in
their silence know
the
final coming
is
at hand.
Botulinium
Toxin A
(Damien
Hirst, painting)
Biology
dictates
chemistry
directs
mathematics
orders
our
place in the chaos
of
the universe
lined
up one by one
never
touching
equidistant
from the sun
as
obedient slaves
to
the gods of evolution
entropy
and decay
we
march lock-step
shoulder
to shoulder
never
knowing when
but
certain that the end
will
come.
Neil
Ellman, a poet from New Jersey, has published more than 1,000 poems, many of
which are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern and
contemporary art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks
throughout the world.
