to Cubism & beyond

and he had a secret life:
it was both a cut above
and a cut below
the powerful knife
like a bull who carved women
who would jump in fascination
or walk
or swim
or pose for a portrait
because the bull would draw
more than a short hard gun
if he could get it!
with his bold eyes consumed with gaze
he went looking for The Four Cats
but only had a single drink
when after many days
blue became a brush stroke for cold
and death and they'd drip from the edge
of newly stretched canvas
trimmed in leaf of gold
and he enjoyed seductive summer nights
with two or three French layers
mostly fantasy behind a mask
of curious insight
into the darkness of Spanish art
wherein a black African dance form
emerged like abstract Barcelona.
and he had an insatiable heart
which kept beating past the death
of many loved ones
including a first wife
who blew her last breath
after the Second World War
and famously was heard from no more!
and he had a lovely smile and hunger
for an athletic girl
who became yet another muse
though much younger
and he eventually had a bell which bled
and he smoked like exploding bombs
do on a war-ravaged street
where a child might be found dead!
and he would remember the valiant peasant fight:
a mother screaming in agony;
he heard her anguished words
long before losing his own brilliant sight
in 1973
when he died in Mougins, France
saying "Drink to me!"