A Child’s Drawing
He is a child’s drawing of authority,
with a wonky three-baubled crown clapped
on a U-shaped face, three floating streaks
of unconvincing hair scratched as an
afterthought over a savage grill mouth
and eyes ovals with black scribbled dots.
His body is a fly’s blue abdomen;
stick limbs terminate in grasping spider
hands and feet like malformed beetles.
The artist has added the cape of a court
fool, or a washed-up superhero, and piles
of jewels rendered as multicoloured daubs
and bullion and coin drawn in the same
yellow as crown and hair. His whole world
is encompassed on this sheet of sugar paper.
He is a true and certified copy of himself.
No photograph could do more justice to its
subject, no 3-D printout add more depth.
Tim Turnbull has been performing his poetry, at home and abroad, for over twenty five years. His first full collection, Stranded in Sub-Atomica, was published by Donut Press in 2005. His latest is Avanti! from Red Squirrel Press. He has created stage shows, toured with slam teams, published in numerous anthologies and magazines, written supernatural fiction, and also paints and draws.
