On the wall of my lounge

I have a print of Picasso’s

La Vie

It was purchased in Paris

Some years ago

And has a tragic story

Behind it

Or so I am told

As it portrays

The doomed artist

Carles Casagemas

Who was a good friend

Of Pablo Picasso

It is a lonely work

With Casagemas

And Germaine

Standing opposite

A robed mother

Both Casagemas

And Germaine

Seem happy

He points

Towards an infant

As if to emphasise

What might have been

It is telling that

Casagemas and Germaine

Avoid eye contact

With the robed woman

As in real life

Casagemas tried to kill

Germaine

Before shooting himself

It is an intensely sad painting

And even now after

All these years

I cannot study it for long

Many of my friends

Pass it without comment

Some ask me and I share

My scarce knowledge

They enquire of Casagemas

But never of Germaine

 

 

Stephen Masefield