The Cold Tap Sings

Untitled, Domingo Martínez, 2015

WRIST

today could be about the word ‘wrist’
wrist silent double-u silent whisper
the way the sound wrist echoes
risk is each wrist doubled
you ask have you ever
seen the dark turn
orange neon
purple or
wrists
or purple
neon orange
turn the dark seen
have you ever you ask
is each wrist doubled risk
the way the sound wrist echoes
silent whisper silent double-u wrist
could ‘wrist’ be about the word today

Translator’s Note

Here is an explanation of the process that brought about this poem. I wrote down my first impressions of the artwork (above) – orange neon, wrists – before sculpting them into a triangular form, with the second half a blurred reflection of the first. The poem became an arrow pointing toward the word ‘wrists’, just as the artwork is an arm pointing to an image. The artwork had been ‘translated’ into a poem.