paint:
the recumbent Frida — deep incisions in her back
the seated Frida holding court and corset and scorn.
Their criticisms, gossip, recriminations
in the demeaning, in the mean-spirited
“Unregenerate junkie,” apply layers of disdain, “nymphomaniac, suicidal, alcoholic, self-dramatizing, narcissist” Easy for you to say
And she is dying posthumously one more time in their scorn … martyr bordered, la misericorda.
Papa!
holding the yellow flower that the Aztecs associated with death and that decorate graves all over Mexico.
Her magic numbers, talismans — to ward off any more
the internal lyrical motives that impelled her
All the things she loved
her characteristic small slow affectionate strokes
Diego
She paints on the smoothness of metal — touch, touch and gently with her meticulous brush
the skin of the fruit, tree, rock, stream
I feel you
all is alive I feel you
the miracle of her touch with paint
her pain in paint
Heart, uterus, breasts, spine
longing, longing, she paints
intestines — the valves up close
blood through
trembling
smallest of brushes like eyelashes on skin
she trembles
every hair stands up
painting fur
the tenderness of her touch
a parrot, a small dog
skin of water, fruit, birds
softness — the velvet curtain
the folds of dress
one foot in oblivion—
love me a little
and she feels with her eyes the water all over her
and she paints, the flatness of rock, the texture of feather and tree
the exposed heart
roots, veins
If you could feel what I feel.
Drops of mother’s milk, drops of blood, the weeping fruit
She feels in her the motion
And I am painting the skin of my body—
my pain
with a small brush
something so dear
with reverence.
a touch like no other
There is no artist in Mexico that can compare with her, he says.
The blood pumping of the heart, the severed valves, hurt, love. Your blood flows up into the distant mountains and down into the sea, chasm, the red delta, red river, fluid, brutal poetry of blood and broken
green: warm and good light
cobalt blue: electricity and purity. Love
she feels in her the joy, the yellow pulsing mystery madness
She feels in her the music, voices, pictures, sings.
drawn to the swirling
vibrant, magnetic, Diego, the way color
pulses—
the way—
color comes and goes
She feels in her the alegría
She would become happy in front of any beautiful thing.
the way color keeps
the way color has always kept
drawn to the swirling
the way the line redeems
consoles sometimes.
the way — broken
impassive, furious, anguished—
the torso split paint
without flinching
steel corset
breaking apart
Diego why?
ionic column
answer me.
a pair of legs severed from their body and between them a pair of lips.
a blood red ribbon circling her neck now Diego don’t go.
Diego
Love me a little I adore you
the way the ribbon connects—
blood of Mexico
— transcends
because I loved you, wanted you.
promiscuous one,
a monkey tail encircles her neck
and lust is just another adornment (thorn necklace,
hummingbird)
a way of getting there
The monkey Frida naked, laughing. Fulang Chang! she cries, she paints.
Votive: devotion
egg, pagan, emblem of creation she paints
you are rejuvenation, you are spring and resurrection, sanctity of blood, beating wings as your teeth
As your teeth sink into him and you swear yourself once more into being.
turbulence of earth, puberty and you are back once more at the Preparatoria before, before …
Accident:
ferocious child of light
the broken eggs, maimed dolls, the figure blindfolded, the torn bridal canopy
And she smiles and she utters unearthly things and she utters not in any known language, in stars and pain, pulque she says I am devouring time and the earth
put it in my eyes now
votive: vision
ACCIDENT
I am not sick. I am broken.
I am happy as long as I can paint.
Survivor
Between the Curtains (Self-Portrait Dedicated to Trotsky)
Fulang Chang and Myself
The Square Is Theirs (Four Inhabitants of Mexico)
I With My Nurse
They Ask for Planes and Only Get Straw Wings
I Belong to My Owner
My Family (My Grandparents, My Parents and I)
The Heart (Memory)
My Dress Hangs There
What the Water Gave Me
Ixcuintle Dog with Me
Pitahayas
Tunas
Food From the Earth
Remembrance of an Open Wound
The Lost Desire (Henry Ford Hospital)
Birth
Dressed Up for Paradise
She Plays Alone
Passionately in Love
Burbank — American Fruit Maker
Xochitl
The Frame
Eye
Survivor
ACCIDENT
I have a cat’s luck since I do not
die so easily and that’s always something.
Accident
Written by Dr. Henriette Begun in 1946
1926: Accident causes fracture of third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, three fractures of pelvis, eleven fractures of right foot, dislocation of left elbow, penetrating abdominal wound caused by iron handrail entering left hip, exiting through vagina and tearing left lip. Acute peritonitis. Cystitis with catheterization for many days. Three months bed rest at Red Cross hospital. Spinal fracture not recognized by doctors until Dr. Ortiz Tirado ordered immobilization with plaster corset for nine months. After three or four months of corset patient suddenly felt entire right side “as if asleep” for hour or more, this phenomenon giving way with injections and massage; symptoms not repeated. At removal of corset patient resumed “normal” life, but from then on has had sensation of constant fatigue and at times pain in backbone and right leg, which now never leave her.
1929: Marriage. Normal sex life. Pregnancy in first year of marriage. Abortion because of malformed pelvis. Wasserman and Kahn (W&K) tests negative. Constant fatigue and weight loss.
1931: In San Francisco, California, examined by Dr. Leo Eloesser. Given several tests, W&K among them, these resulting slightly positive. Two months treatment without a cure. No analysis of spinal fluid. In these days pain in right foot worse, atrophy up to thigh in right leg increases considerably, tendons of 2 toes in right foot retracted, making normal walking extremely difficult. Dr. Eloesser diagnoses congenital deformity of the backbone. X-rays show considerable scoliosis and apparent fusion of third and fourth lumbar vertebrae with disappearance of invertebrate meniscus. Small trophic ulcer appears on right foot.