John Hertzberg.
Marilyn and Mickey.1996.
Mixed Media Collage, 74" x 45". $2500.

Walls of Ishtar spinning
So far removed from the beginning
The Rubicon Princess vanished
Within the hallways of thought
Long necked creatures like dreams remembered
Revolving relentlessly
No start
No finish
The order of all of it unrevealed
Only fragments remain concealed
Within geometry floating
High above sunlit days
Voices shouting
Children at play
Shadows just at the edge
No fortune cookie to be read
Choices whirling by
As calliope sounds fill the air,
Would that we could
All that we dared
Recalling the proud deeds
Of so many yesterdays
When our heros illuminated our lives
Now they can be seen once again
Recycled with adhesive
So that they'll stick
To any envelope that we pick
Fitting so nicely in a comer niche
Where they're all forgotten
As Billy the Kid flips the switch
Turning on the lone light
Within his room of thought
While Old Glory flutters in the breeze
Colors changed
Like horses in midstream
Floating next to Wordnian's worst dream
Hauntingly exposed upon pristine white
A chance meeting on a long ago night
No exchange
Only the remains
Of memories of fear
Coming to light
If only within the dream
Mushroom clouds and final shrouds
Cryptic scrawlings
Upon midnight howlings
Windswept landscapes illuminated
With harsh cadmimn orange hues
Viewed by Billy the Kid crouching
Just behind the opening in time
Trying to figure out
What was real
Staring through the window sill
As time revealed secrets unfolding
Were they past or were they present
Trapped inside an endless dream
Always the spectator
As windows of opportunity slid by
Glaring concrete recollections surfacing
Remembering the color pink
And the smiles and the laughter
As well as the crowds
A lone figure hearing the news
All of the heros are gone
As he turns towards the sun
Seeing one who escaped
Hanging suspended
From his gossamer cape
Floating through manganese space
Passing by the window
Where fingerprints wait
For the return
Of all that was then
But now is not
Marilyn and Mickey
Not just faces in the crowd
Their smiles illuminating
The future unrestrained
Long before we knew their names