Point of View

your attention is first drawn to the white web
against the blue background it resembles a hairnet
cracks in cooling lava
surgical sutures
capillaries filled with white blood
around the edges black and blue lines interlaced
in them the outlines of monsters emerging
above the web a black spot is pulsating
it is surrounded by closed lines
patterns like this can be observed on certain precious stones
the pulsation depends on your movement
you approach the web from an angle of approximately sixty degrees
take a step and the web unexpectedly dissapears
in its place appears a woman’s face
with long curly hair
black pupils look right into your ones the thin colorless
lips smile but the eyes are sad
another step and the face vanishes in its place again
appears the web

this is what the advertisement for the movie “Lady in the Water” looks like
set up on the second floor of the Coca-Cola Plaza
the woman is named Bryce Dallas Howard in the movie she plays
a mysterious nymph or mermaid inhabiting a swimming
pool next to a big apartment building in Philadelphia

I am talking about this ad because it
seemed to me to be the answer to a question asked by a certain
internet poet “does my esteemed colleague separate
art and reality and if so where”
probably art is divided from reality
by a step maybe less by half by a third a fifth
of a step by a baby-step half a pinky-toe maybe half a toenail
to see a woman’s face instead of a web
it’s enough to move just a single degree along
the circle in the centre of which is located an advertisement
I investigated this effect for a long time transferring my body weight
from one leg to the other and discovered all you need’s
a very slight shift change of viewpoint
to once again see the web or the mysterious
face of Bryce

I don’t know if my discussant will be satisfied with this answer
but I can’t think of anything better I think that realness
reality is some kind of advertisement created
by an anonymous artist on order from an unknown company
and what we see there depends on our own selves

and also if we consider the original image to be the face of Bryce Howard
then the artwork will probably be the image of the web
while if you consider the web to be the original then the work
of art will be the image of Bryce Howard’s face

___________________
Translated from Russian by Ainsley Morse.

Перевод стихотворения "Точка зрения"
http://www.stihi.ru/2006/08/09-840