Issue 1:
Balance
J. Michael Yates
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Balance
Sitting deep inside the frame of Dali's Crucifixion, as we dined, the Angolan Poet, Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto and I marveled that Galatea took no notice of us. She was looking up at the Christ figure. We, too, looked up, and suspended conversation, each time that the motorcyclist on the cable rode down from the upper right of the painting to the lower left, passing directly over our table.
After numerous of these rides, I watched his mental preparation for the dangerous descent. He was staring, fixing, on something near or at the table. I pointed. Eduardo turned: "He fixes on you because he can see your eyes."
With this knowledge, I then grinned and told Pinto to watch. Just after the motorcyclist began downward, I turned my head to the world outside the frame. Pinto turned as well to avoid seeing what was about to happen.
The motorcycle fell from the wire and crashed upon the linoleum squares somewhere in the vast Daliesque space.
The rest of the dinner was eventless. As we left the painting, Galatea did not turn.
~J. Michael Yates
The author of 26 books, Michael has taught throughout North America, and has been published in hundreds of literary magazines and e-zines. Email.
© 1999 by J. Michael Yates. All Rights Reserved.
© 2000-2002 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.
This page updated April 23, 2002.