On the Inherent Narrative

Painting by Michael Parkes


on the inherent narrative


X googles gall bladder disease
wanting to find out if fat consumption
might be the cause of his guts knotting in pain
a diagram of acupuncture points
on an X-ray Chinese male
is this still a narrative structure
linking cause & effect
or if she lies naked on a sheet of cotton
& bleeds
while a golden Labrador lies next to her
its watery eyes clearly indicating
(well more of an assumption
of clarity since studies
have shown dogs do
not approve of
favoritism &
will cease
performing if
another dog gets
a greater attention)
boredom: indicative
of boredom those eyes
is this art: a narrative &
where lies the meaning in
a silence between her lips &
even X to X1 tells a story: paint
on a canvas don’t paint on a canvas
an empty room a blank page her cell
phone photo of this place where some
unidentifiable smudging veils a thing
unidentifiable: abstract minimalism
ashtray molds lined flush against
the casement in a basement
water pipes wrapped in
yellow masking tape
with the rolls left
hanging from
the ceiling
“3 x 4.5”
written in
charcoal next
to an empty light
fixture cut in the drywall
a measurement of the limits
of the meaning of narrative the narrative
of meaning of fat on what is hidden inside
the gall the bladder filled & unfilled
& floating inside a sack of guts
move or do not move is unseen art still art
music unheard still stirring
or only if we note a passenger traveling
thru the country on a train in 1905
discerning what lies near from what disappears
what thickens what grows
polyps what refuses light passing thru
(a black hole eating the meaning
of its own story): i went thru & never
came back & somewhere
someone sees something but says softly:
it was nothing;

for Susan Meissner: they like me better
after they read my poetry:
i need to reverse that:
you’re so nice but in your poetry
you are such a dick


Richard Lance Williams

Posted over on More Poetry