Dreaming of Cézanne

1. Jacket on a Chair

You carelessly tossed
  the jacket on a chair.
The assembly of cloth

collapsed in slow motion
  into a heap of cotton —
cotton freshly picked

from the fields —
  like flesh
without a spine.

The chair's wooden
  frame provided
a brief skeleton,

but it wasn't enough
  to renew the coat's
shape, the body's

prior strength,
  or the muscle
to hold its own.

When one peels off
  one's outer skin,
it is difficult to hide

blood's liquid weave.
  Wood, wool, stitches,
and joints — an epitaph

of a card player's shuffle,
  and the history
of my dark faith.

[based on Cézanne's Jacket on a Chair,
graphite and watercolour on paper, 47.5 X 30.5 cm, 1890-92]

from Drunken Boat , Dreaming of Cézanne (Gallerie), Writing the Lines of our Hands, and forthcoming in Blue Nude: New Selected Poems & Translations 1980-2010.