Looking At Girls Looking At Art
By Lou Orfanella

The thin girl mostly blond looks at modern art at the
MOMA swarming with sophisticated urbanity
She is nondescript blue jeans with an orange top or it is yellow
I will try to find out later in another gallery perhaps
One in which Frank lunched
You there, looking at Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror
You are looking at Picasso I am looking at you looking at Picasso
The Picasso has three breasts
You have two breasts that defy simile
Looking at girls looking at art
The black and white photographs of refugees that you did not know were art
With their shades of gray and such shadows
The photo of the aged country doctor with its own shades of gray
Reminds you of the scar you can do nothing about
Looking at girls looking at art
You do not know whether to envy or pity the models
Knowing you will never have your nude body photographed or painted
Makes you feel safe and cheated at the same time
Like the 'Two Tahitian Women of Gauguin
Looking at girls looking at art
You look at the Starry Night and ponder the heavens with
Their infinite pits of blackness and burning white flames
In your green shirt black stretch pants gray sneakers and ponytail
You are thinner by far than any of the masters' subjects hanging in the Met
Thinner too than most I have seen
You read the magazines and suck your celery stalks
Looking at girls looking at art
When I find you by Monet's fog it is yellow and orange and a sweater
With light red and white striped shorts
On the escalator another you
Yellow jumper maroon shirt so many colors so many girls looking at art
I strain to catch your reaction to the Warhol repeating images
Alas it is not in English I can only guess from your inflections
Looking at girls looking at art in a foreign tongue
Spiraling upward quickly then downward at ease at the Gug
Where you waited on the street for the doors to open
Sipping overpriced coffee from a paper cup
Not caring what was in the building not knowing it was art itself
The Frick with no definitive theme
Wandering from room to room deciding which collection to view
Is like being with you in your living room
Where you take off your shoes and unbutton your shirt
And all the colors become white
And we look at art while the dusk becomes dawn