Melinda Smith #5 - after Beatrice Machet #13 ETRE ELASTIQUE

ne pas compter sur un retrait de la force

c’est un jaillissement original

l’appeler vie      l’appeler énergie

(Beatrice Machet #13, être élastique,
after Kit Kelen’s second painting and Dominique Hecq’s #9)

‘And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever: / Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken./ So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. ‘

(Genesis 3, 22-24)

mistranslations from the scriptures

there will be no retreat

only the original jealousy;

the apple of life;

the apple of energy

a betrayal, with force,

this jail, this jailing

you want the enforcer

to be restrained

don’t count on it

you cannot compete

you are not competent

your ongoing playfulness

counts for nothing

this is the organ of judgement

the road is calling

appeal to your life

appeal to your engine

apply yourself to the way

Melinda Smith 2018

(each line of this poem is a mistranslation of a phrase from the portion of ‘être élastique’ quoted above)