Poem: Seven Studies for a Self-Portrait (Study #4)

Study #4
after Egon Schiele

Look at me, cock in my claws,
comb-crimson from scratching.
Skinny arm kinks round my
back, but can’t kill the itch.
The hand can’t scratch its bone.
I snapped off the black arrows
but their featherless beaks peck
at the sacs. Their broken feet
scratch in the scattered flesh.
I stretch the canvas on the rack.

*

Comments

Calder said…
Superb little gem of a poem Jee, enjoyed!! especially...

"Skinny arm kinks round my
back, but can’t kill the itch.
The hand can’t scratch its bone."

R Jay
4:01 PM
Jee Leong said…
Thanks, R Jay.
6:18 PM
Anonymous said…
Here, it;s all in the sound. You have brought the violence of Schiele into the words--a spitting irony at the close, oh yes!
3:37 AM
Jee Leong said…
You're my Reader, Andrew.
8:30 AM
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