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Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

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© by Mike Alexander

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:

  • by Mike Alexander , first published 1999, copyright © 1999, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Robert McCauley , "Sonnet - "this skeletal jockey" (Basquait)" [ tenor and piano ], from A Seven of Sonnets, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2018-10-09
Line count: 14
Word count: 104

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–Emily Ezust, Founder

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