Rauschenberg's Goat
– A “combine” by Robert Rauschenberg
There are no sadder colors than red and yellow
daubs on a blue face
found down in the dumps
The hit-and-run damaged snout
clown-patched
blotches of gouache
applied by a makeup artist
the goat in death readied
for carnival
Longhaired silvery wool
brushed to shine
like a thoroughbred stud’s
burnishing its owner’s vanity
Horns spiral outward in ideal symmetry
It must have backed into the tread-worn
rubber tire belly-bracelet
and landed with hooves
glued upon tattered
throwaway texts –
newspapers posters admission tickets
Coffined
within a glass cube
The Show Goes On
– charlotte mandel