Legs, 1978, 17.5 x 25cms, charcoal on paper.

V. Legs

My sitting, thigh over thigh, is my gift to her and her stroking charcoal. Hers, this cropping I’ve longed for. Head gone, torso gone, feet gone, but here in permanence, sits my true alibi, my weighted passivity. Centre of gravity is where chair contacts me and I push back, nerves whispering sweet things, asymptotically approaching numbness. This endless attentiveness she gives to here and nothing beyond, this is her gift – light licks my edges. Reduction draws my bliss: the charcoaled definition of thigh on thigh, of left calf pressed there – the muscled concentrate of presence. Ah and where calf meets thigh, hand hangs heavy, charcoal fingers dreaming of fire.