Erich Heckle-Handstand (Acrobat) 1916

Erich Heckle- Handstand (Acrobat) 1916

I.

It’s 1916. I fall back against

The canvas, a shadow

To the naked man

Center stage standing on

His hands. I mirror him,

Triumphant, a sketch.

Ancient masks

Snicker at his profanity:

Bare buttocks, dangling—

Their own gruesome faces are wilted lilies.

Cold charcoal swells to the surface

Of my veins as the artist paints me, transforming his hands into mine—

Completed, I am the criminal—

I hold the gun now—

The bang goes off in my head.

But I am only shadow, and my

gun is only shadow.

Shadows cannot kill what has been

sketched into reality.

II.

Hurried, I scratch charcoal

— Is this charcoal? —across the surface

Of a blank canvas—as I carve

My hand blackens with

Every stroke, sketch, and shade—soon the cruel reality

Of the Circus blinks scaly eyes

Through the ancient eyes of theatrical masks:

“Laugh! Applaud!”

German Expressionism at its finest.

III.

The Acrobat—

the movement of his body is

a flexible, nude flamingo.

His audience

Watches as he performs a perfect handstand.

They snicker at his ardent talent.

I am the acrobat’s nature—

His shadow,

a scowling sketch aiming a gun

at the organization

bent on the destruction of human expression.

Oh, how I wish I could move like that

To express myself freely

Like the freak—

But shadows cannot dance.