Sunday, February 14, 2016

February 14 -- Gerald Locklin

 Edward Hopper:  The Yellow House, 1923


This one actually seems to be two houses,
Facing in different directions, the way that,
In Ulysses, Leopold Bloom and Molly slept,
Foot to face, which, it’s said, James Joyce himself
Slept with Nora Barnacle.

The Big Yellow House has two windows
With the shades drawn on the second floor
To resemble human eyes.  The smaller house
Has one window, like a Cyclops whose eye
Is in the back of his head.  At any rate, these two
Structures had both directions under surveillance,
And a grizzly mouth, and a Tom Sawyer fence,
Behind the smaller one.

Van Gogh painted a Yellow House also, and he did not
Give it a Halloween face because he would probably
Have welcomed the occasional visitor.  But they seldom
Came, and Gauguin abandoned the sinking sanity,
And we all know how that worked out, good only for
The lucky few who snapped up the posthumous canvases
Before the professional collectors came to their jaded
Senses









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