Poem: Must

Willem Claesz Heda (1594/1595-1680), Still Life with Ham, Beer Glass and Silverware, 1651, oak panel, 63.5 x 81 cm/25 x 31.9 in (detail).

By JEREMY HIGHT, August 2022

If there truly is an “art world”

Is it measured by empty cups and tickets to cities?

By the exact height and weight of the dead?

By elbows and chatter 

Or is it the stench of antiquity?

The must of present dead into past?

Does it have so much breath and synchronous moments?

Or does it move skinless like bones do, motions, actions in space

Time alone solitary not action painting at some loft party clouded with cocaine

When biennials die into past is the corpse pale and soft like paper or a fog slightly vinegar

Then nothing at all but those artifacts.