LIFECLASS (1999)

Dorothy Nimmo (b. 1932)

You suggest I start with charcoal.  Get used
to working with the whole arm, moving
freely from the shoulder.

You tell me I am making decisions
with every black mark on the thick grey paper.
Notice the relationships.

Map the connections.  My paper is covered
with black decisions.  Do you have
a putty rubber?  It's not so much a question

of learning to draw as of learning to see.
I am to think of the model
as an object in space.  When you lean over

I can smell the soap in your wrist-hairs.
You say, Do you mind if I make these marks
on your work?  I say, Don't touch me.

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