Daniel Carrington, Honorable Mention, Friendswood Library Ekphrastic Poetry Contest & Reading

James Ensor, The Intrigue, 1890

THE ONLOOKER

          after James Ensor’s The Intrigue, 1890

is it sin to look so strangely?

to take it at face value

that I meant the painted figures   

and not us? 

our eyes would rather ask

than look away, entranced

by the meat hooks of fashion

on display for the occasion.

a masquerade is waiting.

and the harlequin faces passing

distracted through the frame

do not exchange our glance—

save for one.  his eyes

are like our eyes subtracted;

his mask done up to mime affront,

contorted by what he sees

(or views as slight) so much so

that we see ourselves anew—

the mask that held us up

now slipping, revealing

vacant eyes we can’t unpaint,

nor erase the thought

he’s not quite asking—

what other madness

did you hope to find?

Daniel Carrington, Honorable Mention, Friendswood Library Ekphrastic Poetry Contest & Reading

Daniel Carrington is an architectural intern and poet.  He’s a four-time Juried Poet for the Houston Poetry Fest, his work having been anthologized on each occasion, and he now serves on the festival’s Steering Committee.  His poems have also appeared in Sol Magazine Project's anthology Thirteen Poets (2015).  He’s been a featured reader around the greater Houston area, notably for Public Poetry and Friendswood Public Library’s Off the Page Poetry series.  He’s a lifetime member of and Corresponding Secretary for the Gulf Coast Poets chapter of the Poetry Society of Texas.  He lives in Cypress, Texas.