Ali Power

WHY I AM NOT A PAINTER

Almost full-frontal female parapet decorates

Familiar strata, a necklace performing

Opposite actions, edge motif loosening

Unbinding the identity of the scene

A marshy landscape confronted by

The opposite of an audience

An ally, a skeleton of a witch’s kitchen

A grotesque representation of love & collateral

Motion, a pile of books topped with a skull

A surface set in letters captioning the belly

Blotchy eros, full-bleed translation, women

On top, visible in bed’s apparent absence

That space with red absorbed poses

City views polarized strangely

The surrounding hills so accurate

I went to the highest place I could to redraw it

To recast the models of self-portraits

I adhered power to these portraits

An indentation to the upper lip

Took refuge in the understanding of a white shirt

A finger set against a dark background

Within an oval frame of chronological gestures

Copies with no location

This is the history of nowhere

So unaffected by what is going on

MISTRANSLATION CCI

or MEMORIAL DAY

Beneath my reactions

Are stronger reactions

Erroneous boyfriend,

A plague on both our houses

I cut my losses

Stop going along for the ride—

Helvetica subtitles & bad music from the ’90s

I should know better

Whiskey rosé piña colada michelada

It had everything to do with freedom—

You’ve gotta give for what you take

I’m waving my fuck you flag at you

Slowly, I’m eating this hotdog sonorously

All by myself

Ali Power is the author of A Poem for Record Keepers forthcoming from Argos Books (Spring 2016) and is the editor of New York School Painters & Poets: Neon in Daylight (Rizzoli, October 2014). 

Ali Power is wearing the golden body armor, the brass skull necklace and a 3 spear pink quartz necklace on long leather cord, she’s passionate in her mactaggart jewelry and laughs aloud for all to see.