DIE SELBSTSEHER

DIE SELBSTSEHER

At first only the hurt eyes are naked, regarding us from behind the respectable hat and tie of his earliest Self-portrait.

Later, masturbating before a mirror, the balls are clutched between long bony fingers.

But now Edith Harms is dying; watches impassively the unflinching Selbstseher as he sketches out this last precious bastion against mortality; manifestes, in the sunken, empty, pillow-bound features, a draughtsmanship strong enough, a resignation deep enough, a reality intense enough to make the death mere incident when seen against the conscious strength of his lines.

Three days later, when he followed her, there remained only the camera’s indifferent eye to record an unshaven, emaciated face, exhausted with suffering, staring out from the stained, emancipated pillow.