The Sphinx
I was walking up 5th Avenue
heading to Bryant Park
Humming that song by Robyn Hitchcock about Balloon Man
when I noticed something was wrong,
different at the library entrance.
One of the lions was missing, gone from his pedestal.
Sphinx, the sphinx was on it instead.
The Sphinx!
I was nonplussed
I had thought she was dead.
I had seen her suicide rock in Greece
on the road to Corinth.
Another crushed under the heels of a wandering Oedipus
But now I guess not,
since here she was
playing the cougar on 5th Avenue.
As you can read in the poem it is inspired not only by my reading of Greek mythology but also by my travels to Greece, by the main branch New York City public library and by feminism which underlays almost all my work. Why shouldn’t one of the iconic lion statues at the library be feminine? And, somewhat unrelated to other themes of the work an iconic poster of Jimi Hendricks inspired the composition of the work.
- Subject Matter: Figure Painting
- Collections: Mythological Sightings