Remembering the Bonnard Retrospective

Like being trapped
in the L.A. County Museum
bound to the first room of the Bonnard Retrospective
by your exterminating angel

the dark designs on cardboard
exquisite
but unliberated
manifesting all the grim colors
mercilessly somber

you stand uncomprehending
your back toward the succession of rooms
where color blisters the mind
and the scorched heart can reassemble,
enlarged by the realization of light,
the heat.