[)when you are shoulder brushing shoulder(blouse]

dedicated to & inspired
by e e cummings

)when you are shoulder brushing
shoulder(blouse brushing pant
leg)i could give

meaning to slumber.i could give
meaning to the deepest
hardest flint of silence.   the first time

i confessed
to the sky(the
sun forgot
your face)the first time

i confessed
to the ocean(
waves swallowed
your hands)the first time

i confessed my heart(you
kissed away my mind)tied
cruel & firm as helium.

here is the plumpest secret
no one knows
[balloon as moon,
the sun as june]

we touched
with touch
much more
than touch

the first time
the first time
(thefirs ttme

Behind the art

e.e. Cummings, American poet, painter and playwright known for his playful use or omission of capitalization and punctuation. At his death in 1962, he was the most widely read poet in the United States secondary to Robert Frost.

e.e. cummings is literary legend, but he is little known for his visual art. I paired the latter cummings-inspired poem with his painting, brunette woman in opera box. She sits high above the audience at the opera, eyes cast downward, perhaps longing for love, perhaps pondering disconnect.