Journal of the Birth
by David Meltzer
Oyez, 1967
Art Diary
for David MeltzerEstes looks good here
Celmins exquisite,
and everything about that Brillo Box
achieves its lucent quiddity in time.
A New Age showboat
of vinyl and kapok,
lithe bodies and retroactive fruit
film a sense of being at the event.
All are "expressions," each a ritual trick
with multiple crotch marks, lineaments,
cultural signage like metaphoric cleft chins
and precepts beyond
their facial contours. In a dark map,
Government Dog bites Everyman's butt,
and the worry lines on Mother's
brow deepen.
Remember when cognition could walk and talk
and copyright desire?
True, art today won't work like that --
funny-peculiar, not ha-ha.
