Simple lines create ruses that what is complex
can be understood. An artist’s detail of heads and legs
are but the medium for admiring curved lines that
make two horses into four.
When we believe that two dimensions can be three,
that love can be deep and kind and that a child
can be raised without knowing pain; we trust deeply
in the power of simple lines, drawn or written,
a belief that two horses can become four,
that abuse and darkness suppressed
under the weight of four horses lying on the page
won’t grab the four smooth lines and
twist them into weapons that hurt but leave no marks.
We cling to such lines – covet and purr over the illusion
that they link, bind and explain and add credibility
to the belief that the drunk driver that took you,
his complexities and disease that flattened you
like an artist’s scrawled horses’ heads on parchment
can be understood from a few simple curved lines.
[Editor’s Note:
Four Interlaced Horses
Safavid Period
Iran, early 17th Century
Ink on paper
10.4 X 13.8 cm
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Image used by permission of the MFA, Boston]
