Maureen Kingston Tête d'otage no. 20 (Jean Fautrier, 1944) Adam’s rib / The guiding trowel / Eve’s thigh meat / The plaster flesh / The shape? / One we know all too well / An elementary contour / An opaque projection of the human head / And only one mark punctuates the drab gray matter / A squiggle of blood mid- field / A snaking frequency / A tone only our species can hear / The screech of guilt from Eden’s backwoods / Of course it’s Christ’s face we long to see / In Fautrier’s pâté on canvas-shroud / A simulacrum / Like Jesus toast / A sign of hope / A message of deliverance in French finger food / But that would be a lie / The painter was there / Witnessed / Heard the torture night after night / His medium’s no cooking jest / It is malignant-mud he intends to slather / To expose / Silted fear unearthed / Cemented to the picture plane / The gun’s been fired / The bullet’s penetrated the brain / The wounded delta’s our common ground / Our connective tissue / The estate we all must share / Whenever we cross over / Whenever we become / Willing hostages to hate /

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