On Found Objects
               (Pablo Picasso, 1945)

Do you remember the bull's head I made
from objects found discarded, handle bars,
a bicycle's old leather seat, spare parts
I welded into one and then displayed
at an exhibit? Then the critics said,
"Look how cleverly he formed it, how
he made the horns, look at the leather snout.
It's beautifully rendered, this bull's head."
I made those objects new. But now I say
the metamorphosis will be complete
when the sculpture is cast on a trash heap
with other fallen objects, and some day
someone takes them home because they're just right
as handle bars and seat to fix his bike.

Copyright © 2002 Tony Barnstone All rights reserved
from The Formalist
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission