Bishop & Moll – Baltimore Ekphrasis Project

Jennifer Bishop and Anthony Moll traded art and words. Jennifer shared this photograph, entitled “king,” with Anthony:

In response, Anthony wrote this poem:

His Grace

Lord Highness of the saltwater solstice
of post-swim shivers and grass-
sullied Sunday clothes, red licorice
stains on damp black palms.
Lord of curiosity, crinkled noses and
discourse on the friendships of crayfish.

His Grace interrogates all he sees
laughs too loudly in public parks and
has no need for kneeling
to the phalanx of uniformed
blue: still the color of superheroes
not yet the sound of sirens.

Let him stay here
at the eventide of summer
where his subject, the brackish shore
rolls its prostrations before him
where his only foes remain braided
suitresses, 8pm sunsets and okra slime.

Let a goat be a kid
and the state wait for its offering—
for tomorrow comes tomorrow.

* * * * *

Anthony shared this poem with Jennifer:

Orpheus with the Awkward Foot

Twenty-four-feet tall and strumming
elegiac songs on his lyre,
the muse of the Argonauts
flexes atop a frieze of low-relief.
He is seen mid-pivot,
caught in an inelegant pose,
his back, away, but turning toward
a copse of cherry blossoms
chosen to commemorate the fallen
sentries who stood like a sea
wall before this city of monuments.
Should I miss the point instead?
Look upon this bronze Greek with lust?
This daddy of the cult of wine,
this first sodomite,
his calves contracting
his hand caught mid-stroke
his hind glowing in the spring sunlight,
the only god he chose to worship
in his winter years.

In response, Jennifer made this untitled photograph: