Staring at Paintings, Hungry

dust II

Hemingway wrote

that he’d go to the Luxembourg, hungry,

and stare at the paintings

and this was a great way to see art.

The protagonist in Knut Hamsun’s

novel, Hunger,

empty-bellied and delirious,

bites hard into his finger, rending flesh,

to see, I imagine, how far he’d gone.

Kafka’s “Hunger Artist” desperately performing sideshow feats

of living, of being,

and Paul Auster in his flat in Paris

translating French symbolist poetry

with a stomach groaning soliloquies.

Saroyan, in his room in New York, freezing, hair absurdly standing on end,

trying to write a story, to be a writer.

These are some tales of hunger and low strong fires

that make for compelling drama

when you, yourself, juggling

the pits and seeds,

dream of paintings

far-removed from an ordinary appetite.

About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, writer, poet, performer, and playwright, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of four novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, and No Man’s Brooklyn; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His produced, full-length plays include: LOBSTERS ON ICE, ADAGIO FOR STRAYS, THE BEST MEDICINE, ZEITGEIST, U.S.A., and WEREWOLVES DON’T WALTZ.

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