Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy

Eros by any other name arrested
distill those androgyne words of love
to spill like ink and ignite and expire
without language to (s)peak of —
that tiresome obsession sits and swells
in those artless pits of metaphored mountains
dwells in alleys dis-ruptured
on a page Miss Sélavy is winking in her furs
wears the coat like a wolf
sinking teeth on a stage

In response to Man Ray's ‘Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy’ 1920-21.

See the artwork that inspired this poem in the flesh, along with more than 100 of Marcel Duchamp’s world-renowned pieces in ‘The Essential Duchamp’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 April – 11 August 2019.