Kill the Messenger — Robert Kelly

From "The Court Painter":


How can I show you the truth of

anyone witout his face you ask?

The face is the last thing I paint,

& the least important.

It is there to trick the subject

into thinking he is one,

that he has been 'represented.'

But where he is is in a fold

of cape, shadow of a label,

wrinkle between elbow & those wide

gold stripes that tell how great he is