Sonnet ‑ "this skeletal jockey" (Basquait)
Language: English
Spill enough acrylic, no one will see
the raw linen, no one will say, his bones
protrude, a pitiful apology
for his loss, no one will say this atones
for cost projections cast a cold eye, horse-
man, no one will say a paint stick postpones
his pointillist apocalypse, restores
our faith in rehab, no one will say, shit,
this is good shit. Neither artists or whores'
men, no one will, say, willingly submit
to his hypodermic drill-bit of pay-
dirt, saying what no one will say for a hit
too fatal for this skeletal jockey,
mainline, pure, uncut. No, no, one will say.
First published in Y2K Blues in 1999.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2018-10-09
Line count: 14
Word count: 104