Kit Kelen - ekphrastics - three Goyas

Goya's 'Dos Vieijos Comiendo'

the toothless

at their meal

all skull

and spoon

greedy to cram

life's last

in maw

long life!

that favourite curse

of the young

can sin

be as guilty

as we are?

one codger points

towards some spectacle

the unseen is an accusation

the judgement is no distance at all

judgement is upon us

Goya's 'Perro Semihundido'/'Drowning Dog'

this painting has many names

none of them given by Goya

let's say though that the dog is to drown

for the sake of not argument

to be drowned in strong sunshine

of a darkness – gold

but that nose is not yet under

not all these years will drown the dog

eyes must grieve for something gone

belonging to the one that's loved

the sky is gold

the water gold

she would be apt to any task

swim any given sea

if we only knew a name to call

something still to be retrieved 

 

Goya's 'Distasters of War'

the dead are a field in themselves
the fresh mown
have the future spread over them
not evenly though
you couldn't predict

and there are the living
the well, the ill
all attitude
some scratch at the sky
some cast eyes down
to keep going

it could go on for a while
how precious every mother's son
attired in all the battle's soot
and with both boots still on