On Botero's After Velazquez, 2005

painting by fernando botero

On Botero’s After Velazquez, 2005


Bike pumps for brushes
puffing the flesh.
Big sofas of folk
exploding the scene.

I swear I saw
Beryl Cook supping
coffee with Velazquez,
with her rattling on as he snored.

And as he dozed, he dreamed
of las Meninas,
of mirrors and light and elusiveness,
of the humanity of paint.

And she extrapolated her theories
of big-bummed bathing beauties,
of eating cakes in corner cafés,
of comfiness and cuddles.

On her next date
she was seen, with
Fernando Botero
enthusiastically taking notes,
His eyes gleaming
with Abu Ghraib.

Bike pumps for brushes it is, then.

Brian Carlin

Posted over on his site Big Ape Diary
Listed as #27 over on dVerse Poetics-Botero Prompts