Dart-Object

If you’d known what and where I was leaving
from the pieces fallen slack by the mould
Desire might invite key or lock
or tempt you to hold objects in the dark
You can touch the discard
feel it still warm from the form
but her breast won’t forget what once breathed against her
nor her hand release the torch
This is not the tool for entry
but that which when coming, is what’s left

In response to Marcel Duchamp's ‘Objet-dard (Dart-object)’ 1961.

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.