TOTAL CHAOS FOREVERMONTH: Djuna Barnes

SEEN FROM THE "L"

So she stands—nude—stretching dully
     Two amber combs loll through her hair
A vague molested carpet pitches
Down the dusty length of stair.
She does not see, she does not care
It’s always there.

The frail mosaic on her window
Facing starkly toward the street
Is scribbled there by tipsy sparrows—
Etched there with their rocking feet.
Is fashioned too, by every beat
      Of shirt and sheet.

Sill her clothing is less risky
Than her body in its prime,
They are chain-stitched and so is she
Chain-stitched to her soul for time.
Ravelling grandly into vice
Dropping crooked into rhyme.
Slipping through the stitch of virtue,
      Into crime.

Though her lips are vague as fancy
In her youth—
They bloom vivid and repulsive
As the truth.
Even vases in the making
      Are uncouth.

Did you know that the entirety of The Book of Repulsive Women, including the drawings, is online? I am fairly new to Djuna Barnes, but I finally got around to reading Nightwood a few months ago and almost had a stroke. That is, after sweating my way through Jeanette Winterson's introduction, which made the mistake of telling me that after I was done reading this book, a part of me will be "pearl-lined." Anyway, here is a picture of a man attempting mightily to molest a carpet. A vague carpet. Do you like the molester's ponytail? I thought it looked pretty inappropriate. I did not intend for his underwear to be so blood-colored, but I haven't yet mastered the finer points of Corel Painter. If that explanation does not satisfy you, remember also that I am working in the absence of anything that might be called an "artistic eye."

P.S. This drawing tablet is amazing--I will never use a mouse again.