The Sound of Joy Is Enlightenment

Every day I am interrupted by art.

Sometimes it’s a reproduction

of Composition II in Red, Blue,

and Yellow on someone’s wall or

“To restore silence is the role of

objects” when I pick up a book

by my desk, flip through the pages,

and start to read. I welcome the inter-

ruption. But sometimes it’s an ad

for plastic surgery in a magazine

or the car that’s closing in behind

me and as the woman who’s staring

madly and passionately straight ahead

drives past I can see that her bumper

sticker says “And the Lamb (Jesus)

Will Crush the Serpent in the Head.”

You don’t need to open the door

to Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas

Cottage to know that the people

inside are assholes and I don’t need

to parse the words pasted on

the woman’s car or research

the biblical sources of her violent

fantasies to know that I want to stay

far behind her on the road.

Real art can heal you or hurt

you but bad art just fucks you up.

I reach for the dial, turn the music

up loud, and rub my eyes to make

sure that I’m really awake and

the world has not ended.

-Jose Padua