Claudia Gary
Art Auction
Bar-napkin drawings.
Conceptual relics.
Typographical pranks.
Too-large canvases.
Shadowboxes
of champagne labels
and other distractions
perplexingly charged.
Commissions
framed but unbought.
Tableaus of self-doubt.
Landscapes of regret.
Youthful self-portrait: forgettable.
Middle-aged self-portrait:
This I must have.
Torn-paper item: Here is his soul
painted the colors of fire.
This I must have also.
Why did I not accept
his surprise invitation
all those years ago?
A secret plan elsewhere
was too intriguing
to ignore.
All I can do now
is bid.