Flying Down, David Salle 2006 -oil on linen
Life first fell apart when I was five.
Ducks flew upside down trying to save me from snakes
slithering toward the thin line of light that signaled their escape
out the garage and back to their swamp.
While flashlights lit my glory hole.
Five years young and open
to boys, yelling words I tuned out,
“Crush. Kill. Destroy.”
Threats and anxiety
wailed under airplanes.
When stories are told
of lives falling from skies in spiraled animation
my head disappears in yesterday’s cockpits
and bitterness visits my eyes.
Brenda Warren 2012
Visit The Mag for more interpretations of David Salle’s work.
undercaws 
Brenda, this was haunting. The spiraling planes were the most visual to me, and that idea is scary. The overarching theme, growing into adulthood, is brill. A great write… peace, Amy
(and I am SO glad to be back on computer… Marie Dressler isn’t a ballad that has any particular music to it, but I imagine it as a kind of white girl rap with blue grass fiddle, etc., behind it! Peace, Amy
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I Love the “bitterness visits my eyes”! So much in so few words.
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Mysterious… begs for more!
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Lots to think about in your last stanza…
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Yes, I’m sure there is more to tell between the lines of this ghastly sounding youthful experience.
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nicely done Brenda…thanks for sharing
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Childhood morphed to adulthood … very nice.
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“My head disappears in yesterday’s cockpits”…nice…
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A remarkablel story, told briefly but so well…
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