My Gallery Poem by Minnie Gehrig

the past keeps bleeding itself,
blurring all the edges,
paint myself into new days,
where dawn n dusk dance

i am out of time,
yes completely timeless,
like a wax doll

blinking away the emptiness,
of dark nights,
spent alone
n memory's museum

paintings of different poses,
rearranged n posted,
my 9th birthday,
finding the ocean,
coming home,
leaving you,

attempted suicides,
caught in brushstrokes,
of knotted ropes,
crimson slashes,
silence where my lips used to be,

n then reinvented,
years of modern art,
the hollowness of family photo albums,
the nostalgia of your voice,

a bitter circle,
wrapped tight n poetry,
an art that
kills n resurrects me by turns,

while i burn in the sun,
or melt in the rain,
losing myself n
finding myself again,

glass eyes,
seeing not seeing,
a plastic smile,
yesterdays art,
reinvents itself,

n the gallery keeps filling
these versions of me
unknown paintings,
moving onto fresh screens.