Sunburn
after Hopper’s painting “People in the Sun.”
Gurupurnima - day of the sun, of death
and deathlessness – when mineral dies
as mineral, is born and dies as animal,
and is born a man – so what have I to fear?
The curtain’s edge bleeds currant-red,
sun-chucked shadows bleach
white concrete and everywhere
the pale, persistent blue.
The men have squeezed naked
feet into bulging red clogs -
on a stuccoed floating slab,
they grip the arms in frozen pose,
face colossal waves
of blue-black rock rippling
sideways like birthday ribbon.
The young man, oblivious, tilts
his head to the book – and the women –
the unmistakeable, white-hatted,
black-eyed women, one face hidden
behind the stoic black suit –
these tiny functions of futility,
holding fast as storm-flowers,
marking the immeasurable distances
between the red chairs
and the blue umbilical moat,
between the ribbon and the slab.
–alex grant