Caroline Giles Banks

Guernica

Painting by Pablo Picasso, 1937

Chain maille, shredded like old newsprint,
covers up the carnage, the bedlam of civil war.
Picasso’s canvas voraciously absorbs the din.

       white, brown, pink…
       frequencies of noise
       color-coded

Shroud white. Funereal black. Grief gray.
Tubes squeeze, brushes stroke
a bull’s bellow, a horse’s bray,
a soldier’s plea, a mother’s keen.

       dagger tongues—
       mouths agape
       entreat and forewarn

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About the Author

Caroline Giles Banks, born in Boston, Massachusetts, is a cultural anthropologist whose poetry is often informed by her anthropological training and research. She has authored six poetry books, including The Weight of Whiteness: A Memoir in Poetry; Picture a Poem: Ekphrastic and Other Poems; and The Last Oak Leaf: Haiku, Senryu and Haibun Poems, She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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