your body smudged against the canvas and
other ways to live in someone else's memory of light 

art museums are places for
lovers-- i knew what i was doing
when i took you here after hours--
light dark we escaped
into the midnight setting in the gallery--
this is when the pears roll
off the table of the still-lives--
you pick up the fruit of Picasso 
and tell me that it tastes 
something like laughter or
a muted prayer-- pursed lips
of a brush-- let's dance with
each other on the tightropes that
were supposed to keep us far
enough away from the canvases so
as to not become part of them--
the museum guards during the day
aren't there to protect the art
so much as protect us from ourselves--
stop us before every scab of oil paint
becomes a reflection--
these pigmented mirrors--
and so we pull ourselves 
into the gnarled mouth
of the gallery--
you plead for me 
to push you up against the frame
of a Monet-- let's
knock the paintings 
off the walls together--
i'm sick of this organization--
we fall out through the other side
of a Renoir--
i will never forget
how fast we ran there-- body 
turned into a fading promise--
oh lover i always knew
we would shiver like his flowers--
let's not crawl out--
i want to be a girl
in a little red hat-- and you 
can be the poppies kissing
each other's necks-- when the sun 
comes up again we 
will wake up in a blur--
scabs on our knees from 
lying together in bodies 
torn open by the pocket
knife paint brush of Soutine--
Monet made our lips thick
enough to kiss through a canvas--
the light in the gallery 
reminds us that each painting
has taken up the task
of stealing a fragment of light
flickering in the decayed 
eyes of a painter--
facing up towards the 
shuttering sun in a casket--
he still feels the dismembered pulse
of initials slathered
in the corner--
maybe we shouldn't have jumped
off
so many ledges--
now there's no where else 
left to jump--
drink coffee from the bench in
front of the blaring of 
the card players--
you ask to take a dip inside
and i say
tonight 
tonight 
tonight