Los Angeles
Omnipresent God, where are you now?
Out drinking in the cathouses of heaven?
Why are you such the single man?
I want you to get married,
settle down with a nice
feminine force that nurtures,
demands you use your omnipotence
to protect the children.
If you really are omniscient, it should be obvious
your children need a Mother.
oil on canvas
24X36
Can the world embrace
this daughter from my womb
waiting to leave the nest, my blood
from heart to mirror to brush to canvas?
She emerged in the Sun God?s clouds
outlined in blood remembered ochre
bringing me Goddess energy,
memories of lovemaking, orgasm.
Open legs cropped at mid-thigh
Fly from her entrance, like a candle
to ecstasy, pubic fire surrounds the
clitoral flame to climax, more climax.
I see my elder women blush and call it porn.
How do I articulate deeply in shallow water
my painful need for archetype, symbol,
my inspiration for this work?
I painted it--for the victims in Islamic pockets of
Yemen, Sudan and Egypt,
Iraq and Saudi Arabia, who practice
female circumcision or drastic infibulation.
--for the 10 year old girl who wrote it down,
her elder women who carried her out of
slumber, laid her on the kitchen table, broke
glass, using a shard to cut out her clitoris.
--for the child in Sudan and her elder predecessors,
who slice off her labia minora, cut out her clitoris
sew up her vagina, inserting a straw
for urination and menstruation.
She waits, now, to be sliced open
on her wedding night, just wide enough
for her husband's penis.
They call this beauty
saying the woman's natural genitals are
unfeminine, ugly. So I dived into my reflection,
studied, loved and rendered
not metaphorically as a flower,
but beckoning and inviting
the light of the earth, mystery of darkness.
I pull my glued eyes off my daughter canvas
to my jeans, below the zipper
touch myself for reassurance.
I need to feel her passions, love juice,
desires; I feel
so grateful, as I mourn.
oil on canvas
20X24
oil on canvas
48X60
(818) 551-1696