Nude descending a staircase 1937

Stare and the cels coalesce

into streaming nudeness,

one staircascade

built of raw spilt, sprayed

into filmic chute, the fluming Muse,

kinetic, prophetic:

torso, gait, fluid gender

en passant as descender.

In response to Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude descending a staircase (no 2)' 1912.

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.