I would haunt
the Yeats'

hunger for the nearness
of their paint

lose myself
in their ooze

the colours squirming
as if they could crawl

off the canvas

slither into my senses
until they inhabited

the teenager
who would visit them

again &
again

stand in front of
GRIEF

(because he knew what it meant)

always always
the paint

deserting the canvas
attaching itself to the ends

of his
nerves

so that he
became

NO FLOWERS

walking out of the National Gallery
into the stolen sunshine

composed of nothing
but

their Jack B. Yeats
collection

my footprints dripping paint.

***

JACK B. YEATS
(1871-1957)

PAINTER AND YOUNGER BROTHER OF WILLIAM.

GRIEF WAS PAINTED IN 1951.
NO FLOWERS WAS PAINTED IN 1945