Erasure

Slightly inspired by Mary Biddinger's poem "The Subject Pool." Mostly inspired by a trip to the Rauschenberg gallery yesterday.


Yesterday the subject was
Robert Rauschenberg
and how he would draw
and then erase what
he had drawn, and he
thought, who would care?

So he arrived at de Koonig's door
and asked for a drawing
he could erase
and the great artist obliged,
and RR spent a month
erasing that piece of art.

And people were horrified
that he would destroy
a masterpiece.

But Robert just shrugged.
"It's complicated," he said.
"It's poetry."

***

That was as far as I got
in the video; I had not
allowed enough time at
the gallery, and they were
getting ready to close,
so I left.

Stepped out into the bright day,
the sky above the campus
mottled with clouds
on a lovely blue background,
surely ready to erase themselves
at any time.