These poems are from a series inspired by reading Atlas Obscura stories while listening to a music genre randomly selected from my list. The poems were written immediately after reading, still while listening to the randomly chosen music. I frequently post these to Medium. Please share, click the clapping hands below, or help support a writer if you enjoy these.

“Why Renaissance Paintings Aren’t as Green as They Used to Be” (read article here)
vaporwave

Crush copper in acid, mix with linseed oil,
make a Pieta in which the pale and clean-shaven
Christ melts into Mary and a man in a blue-green coat
holds the body up by the underarms. Spend years
studying ribcages, jawbones, faces, crush the copper again.

Again. Breathe the breath of life into Man is like a mere breath.
Let yourself die too. Don’t come back. Don’t resurrect.
Don’t learn about the foot traffic. Don’t hear the percussion
of steps, the clash of voices. Don’t see the camera flash.

Don’t breathe. Don’t be anywhere near breath.
The work is cracked. The cracks have splintered.
The gorgeous peacock color of the man’s coat
is muddy brown, while Christ is still pale.

Don’t crush more copper. Don’t breathe.
Don’t know this is what happens to paintings
about sacrifice.

You can find me at http://www.erinlyndalmartin.com or on Twitter at @erinlyndal.