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I remember how the Earth first came
into existence. It arrived at our schoolyard in a wheelbarrow pushed by one of the
Noahs. Because the Earth could not remain blank for long, children suddenly appeared with
sharpened crayons. They marked out principalities for themselves with an abandon that
adults always misinterpret as cruelty.
Isabel came to the square of ugliness the way gravity comes to autumn fruit. Ugliness pulled her hair limp like swamp moss and evaginated her lower lids so that the mucosae appeared as thin pink crescents beneath her eyes. Little stony taunts orbited her head, the adults tried to swat them away but the other children understood that the schoolyard needs a homely girl just as it needs its embryonic bakers, butchers, firemen, nurses, and prison guards. The cruelty of each new Earth is its need for variety. |
| 5/31/00 | oil on linen | 59 1/2"h X 68"w |
