Poetry&Stuffby
MARNE KILATES
MARNE
S
KRIPTS
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
Botong's 'Camote Diggers'
At the height of his powers he saw the depths
Of suffering: the human form he loved so much—
The glow of skin, the ripple of muscle, the upturned
Chin of his people in soft flourish, like the grace
Of foliage, the curl of cloud—had entered his eyes,
Nagged his consciousness, as they withered
And lost his vibrant colors, as he conjured
Them: Bent and curved like gnarled roots,
Scrounging the earth for a meal, old woman
Digging in the ground, scrawny hands grasping
A stake, knobby as the cake of dried mud,
The man cupping his palms on the white-fleshed
Precious tuber, as perhaps an infant in the dire
Straits of famine sucked desperately from a mother’s
Emaciated breasts—an unquenchable thirst,
An insult to the soul. But even his pigments
Could not sustain the images, fill the emptiness.
.
The bowed figures dug and dug for nearly nothing.
Half the canvas was only pale with hunger.
His ailment had suffocated the artist. His last
Work was unfinished.
The artist’s widow gave
The painting as gift to the dictator and his wife.
Then it was unheard of again, though not as
Unheard of as dictator and family, after the people
Had risen, fled into exile. But as things go in his
Country, the dictator’s family found their way back.
And so did the minions who shared or fed their
Avarice for the beautiful—such as high-priced
Art. Over the decades the Camote Diggers
Showed up in one or two shows, inexplicably,
And vanished again. Then hands—not of poverty—
But of auctioneers, dug it up again. They’re
Putting it up for an initial price not the hunger
Of camote diggers can imagine.
Marne Kilates
23 June 2019
POSTSCRIPT: The anonymous new owner of the painting eventually decided to donate the painting to an as yet unnamed museum. —News item. The controversy continues.
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