let’s stop pretending (evening museums)

I am looking
at the blood
dripping while
listening
to the violin
Perlman playing
Johann Sebastian Bach
envisioning
illustrating
the pages of Chekov
and I’m on the trail of Don Quixote
as a Spanish guitar plays

let’s stop pretending
as we look at these paintings
lining the halls
of the evening
museum
we’re living
we’re breathing
‘neath the faraway stars
—pretending to hide