by Martin Anton Smith martinantonsmith@gmail.com

Afraid Of The Real World?

Become A Blob

Work In The Paint Sector

Work In Red Paint Town Yellow Paint Town Or Blue Paint Town

Strike A Bold Line

On Your Blank Canvas

Or Produce Nothin’ At All

And Wail Reverently At The Pub About Having “Painters Block”

Or Paint Ditch Diggers For Topsoil & Coal Miners For Warmth

Or Wall Street Bankers For Store Credit

Whine About Your Lot Artistically

Cultivate A Wily Look On the Lips

Where the Ladies Swoon & Whisper To Each Other

‘Is It Or Isn’t It An Upside-Down Smile He Has’

While Away Hours Away In Basements

While You Frantically Search For The ‘Energy’

Create Your Collages

Sit Right Next To Your Ideas

You’ll Never Ride The Gravy Train

But You Can Slurp the Latte

Never Eat Meat Again

If You Want The Coolest Artistic Friends

Ride On The Far Left

On Your Expensive Trendy Bike

Into the Blurred Sunset

That’s Covered In Emboldened Rain Clouds

While The Wild Philo Blue Wind Batters You

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

I Ask Of You

What Could Go Wrong

When You Live Color Central

With Your Head In The Imported Tea

Holding Never Much Cash

For You think It Appears Only In Dreams

You Love Blobby Paint Strokes

Your Blobbyness Will Come Back To Haunt You

When One Day The Photo-Realistic Real World

Knocks On Your Door

& Wants Its Money Machine Employed

When This Happens

Pray That You Disappear Into Nothingness

Like That Faceless Ditch Digger You Painted

Who In His Overalls Merged Almost Entirely

Into The Ocre Hole With Purple Contrast

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ok I Agree This Poem About Painters

Isn’t Normal In Its Construction

I Must Be Honest

It Was Written Out Of Embers

Of A Bad Poem About Public Sector Workers

Weirdly Each Line Morphed Really Well

Like It Was Always Going To Happen That Way

The Bad References About Economics

Have Turned Into Good Ones About Art

Good Art Comes From Bad Economics

I Like That Line

I Am Glad I Transmogrified That Former Poem

That I Called “We Are Hiring”

To The New Title Called

“I Just Used Artistic License Wisely”