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basquiat

you never appreciated basquiat

i felt for you

you told me you only saw a childs scrawling

a cry for attention from a petulant teen

a mentally challenged adult hastily daubing a canvas

before the voices overwhelmed him

before the stench of the shit in the world got too much to bear

the tendrils of emetic despair wafting through the grate

in his run down bathroom

cartoon like

forming a hand and beckoning him deeper into misery

 

i tried to tell you basquiat was important to me

and that maybe you should try and appreciate the movement

the colour

the background to this fucking guy

this fucking street urchin who made it because he had it

he had it and i wanted it

 

i want it

 

how people like basquiat gave me hope

that people like bukowski gave me hope

that i could achieve what these people had even though

i was just a docile cunt living in a shit hole town with no family

how i needed to drink to see what they saw

i need to drink to see what they saw baby

 

 it’s not you it’s me

 

but you never listened

you’d just retreat back to your bell jar of insignificance

you never understood basquiat

you never understood why i had to cut myself every night

to use my veins as a palette

to use my tears as a dictionary

you never understood why i didn’t eat

why i never slept

why i had to watch porn to get it up

how i eroded myself

every

single

day

just to be someone

just to be something more than an insignificant speck of dust

something a star shit out

a hand reaching for a bottle

for a throat

for a pen

🌷(2)

◄ lime

dunes ►

Comments

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Stu Buck

Wed 7th Sep 2016 13:01

cheers laura. to me, plath and basquiat are two polar opposites of what art can be. i actually enjoyed reading plath when i was younger, but as i aged a bit i just wanted art to kick me in the tits rather than be safe and secure.

if i had a billion pounds id fill my home with his paintings, every time i look at one i am reminded how much movement and heat he got into each picture. amazing stuff.

i have changed 'every' on to its own line, i agree.

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Laura Taylor

Wed 7th Sep 2016 09:48

Very much drawn to this. Never heard of the fella before but had a quick look up and will research more. Love it when a poem signposts me to something or someone interesting.

This is rapier-like:
you’d just retreat back to your bell jar of insignificance

(I never had any time for Plath, she bores the shit out of me, so this line resonated with me)

So anyway, a total performance piece this, and I'd love to hear it. One teeny tiny thing only, as it's written down: I would move that 'every' onto its own line, as in

every
single
day

just for emphasis, like. Maybe it makes it too obvious for you though. Or maybe even fracture the 'myself' a little.



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Stu Buck

Wed 7th Sep 2016 08:25

cheers suki. glad you liked it.

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suki spangles

Tue 6th Sep 2016 14:52

Powerful stuff. Thanks for sharing Stuart.

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