Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

• playground
• brain & behavior
• complex systems
• biology
• science education
• science & culture
• art exhibitions
• about us

LASCAUX OLYMPIA

I

Transporting staffs wearing bison hair
I tote my sack
Shale whittler
Pounding stone and pestle
Tinctured nuggets
Twigs and flint

My pace is measured
My navigation perpendicular
Precipitous
I falter, swaying
Beneath surrounding hills
Taut, furtive

My hunt
That enveloped cave
Canopied on the bluff
Overseeing the ken of kin encampment

My prey
An expanse of boulder
Coffined within that grotto
Summoning my gestures of illicit act

Sole canvas of virile eminence
Commanding and imposed
Mandate of eons notwithstanding
Formidable panels beckon
A maiden imprint
A thwarting of injunction

II

Presently virgin entrance gained
Untainted and chaste
Feat undefiled
Across masterly portal

I come to chart existence
To map actuality
To lay down life
To defeat emasculation

For where is female
On such graphed walls
Where her mark and likeness
Her place and print

With no Courbet to lead the way
No Manet to emulate
No Matisse in hue of blue
I dare emancipation

III

I roam hallowed colossal halls
Vessiled innocent conveying beam
Vibrating vial while viaducts bridged
My whispered vespers on drying lips
Alongside venison and buffalo inscribed
Mortal mausoleum where only men abide

The site is culled
Appraised craggy
Bumps and lumps
For flank and face
The horizontal langourous
Weeping limestone

A sapirant of caste
I spittle, pound, blow and brush
I nurture dank air
Ravenous and craving

Not tepid this labor
It sings its task
Personification neither radical or rogue
Stamped breath of legitimate sorority

Crevasse and gorge scaled
Garnering perspective
I rest and affirm
This calling to account.

Go on to Pyrenees

from The Third Age in Paris by Arleen T. McCormack

on Serendip

Write to Arleen T. McCormack

| Forum | Guest Exhibitions | Serendip Home |