The Art of

36
We are the artists who ran art
banished art
have no damn crush on art.
What follows won’t be a pleasure.
Even the art that was right
was no pleasure.
If it hasn’t lied it always cheated
itself and might
have enjoyed a papal dispensation to play with itself
gaze at and flush itself.
And the Moloch that every Tver should lust for
chews quietly
without anger –
never swallowing –
those who shat his art out.
BORIS LURIE, JULY 20, 1994