This is an old story:

an artist’s hands

            to manipulate,

working to ease the rigid corpse

                        back,

rebirthed through mottled shadows;

the dangerous pulse of vermillion

            glinting

in oblivion’s maw.
We say we know how this ends –

this evocation

                        nightmare or dream

this hovering at the cusp,

dissolving finally,

            an almost-touch –
But canvas after canvas we try again:

imagining

	the mastery of art

		over evanescence,

the possibility of form

	that rises

from the sludge of miasma –
and always

the impenetrable space –

	beyond the canvas or deep

in its hidden folds –

the suction of encroaching dark.


Notes:

In response to The Raising of Lazarus  by Walter Sickert, 1929, Islington, London.

Oil on wallpaper, detached then laid on canvas, 243.5 x 91.5 cm. Gift of William Bowmore AO OBE

through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 1990, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.