ex nilio

“Betsy Mac Call plays with Blythe Somat in the cemetery”. Copyright Alice Odilon 2010 . 

 for Alice

i've watched her create
her flower dolls and cutouts

bosnian brides runaway girls

creeping morning glories

laconic paper lilies

she surveys the landscape
summoning out of the artifice
their primordial gardens

their dark hallways

and ghostly apartments

slowly she composes the sets

simplifies the devices

lowering the chandelier lights

choosing b&w over the
red of their mortal wounds

she encourages them to
think for themselves
and when lacan flower power
meets vestal somataforme
the plot thins and thickens

one has no face to turn to
for she is scarce to herself
thinking of only others
another prefers her weapons
her anorexic angular edges

it is not an easy work
nor is she ever paid for it
but studiously painfully artfully
from their darkest elements
she summons her girls back to life

Calla Lilies by Jiang Tiefeng (permission pending)