"spare souls?" by Haley King
Anne Gerard | Failed Marriage Pantoum
Outside the museum snow was melting.
Inside we wandered wretched white rooms
where beneath high ceilings I tried to assemble
then reassemble the sky
using only what I could reach. The puzzle
was a replica of the painting in front of it
so I moved my hands until figures coalesced.
Repetition ought to be as clean as it looks.
But it was hard to pair the clouds to their shadows
hard to tell which shades of color fit together
until I’d already forced a match. This story same as
any other splits easily. When you left me alone
to the blue work of unfinished trees
another man called to say I hope no one ever finishes
that image I hope the contour of your fingers
clasped in someone else’s hand is nothing
like the shape of us: It was perfect. Every story I know
how to tell ends with separate beds in separate houses.
Outside the museum snow was melting
under it fractured things no longer
living only identifiable by the dead.
Inside we wandered wretched white rooms
where beneath high ceilings I tried to assemble
then reassemble the sky
using only what I could reach. The puzzle
was a replica of the painting in front of it
so I moved my hands until figures coalesced.
Repetition ought to be as clean as it looks.
But it was hard to pair the clouds to their shadows
hard to tell which shades of color fit together
until I’d already forced a match. This story same as
any other splits easily. When you left me alone
to the blue work of unfinished trees
another man called to say I hope no one ever finishes
that image I hope the contour of your fingers
clasped in someone else’s hand is nothing
like the shape of us: It was perfect. Every story I know
how to tell ends with separate beds in separate houses.
Outside the museum snow was melting
under it fractured things no longer
living only identifiable by the dead.
Anne Gerard lives in Las Vegas, where she is pursuing an MFA. Born in Detroit, and raised in the midwest, she misses the Great Lakes every day.
Haley King, also known by their artist name GRVNGE LESTAT, is a Chicago based LGBTQ+ mixed media artist who primary uses illustrative methods to construct their body of work and combines that with digitally manipulating their own photography to achieve an effort to create their artistic world that houses themes of hauntingly provoking atmospheres.
Instagram @grvnge.lestat
Tik tok @grungelestat
Instagram @grvnge.lestat
Tik tok @grungelestat
