Alan Catlin

Richard Brautigan's Last Hurrah

"I don't know why I wanted to

have a photograph of me and a

chicken in Hawaii." R.B.,

“An Unfortunate Woman”

There are

times

when the only

thing

between us

and death

is an incongruous

image

like

A Mexican

sombrero

balanced

at a rakish

angel on a

medieval suit

of armor

or an empty

shot glass

held out

in the extended

hand of a

mechanical monkey

or

of a bald ceramic

Shirley Temple

Pull-the-chord

she-sings-

doll

crooning

Melancholy Baby

or a chambered

round in a

handgun resting

beside a defunct

cuckoo clock

on a bullet

riddled mantle

piece

bent clock hands

stuck on four

thirty

Or

an installation

of empty

Black Jack                  

Daniels

bottles laid out

in a row

balanced side by side

spent sparklers

and dried flowers

completing the picture

entitled:

DO NOT DISTURB

the artist

is resting