T. E. Lawrence-- Two Paintings by Augustus John

Forget the movie

forget the actors

forget the desert

forget the Arabs

played by an Englishman

and by an American

forget the handsome Egyptian

forget Omar Sharif

forget Peter O'Toole

though they probably

are the elephants

that create themselves

inside our heads

forget the oil beneath

the sand thousands of miles

away beyond the curvature

of a boiling earth engulfed

in a new world war

to see the man

an Englishman who was himself

dressed in the clothes of a nomad

the handle of his janbiya or Khanja

sticking out of the belt

his thobe and tassels

the kufeya, ghoutra and igal

if you want to blame someone

blame him for being a man

who opened the Bedu

to the 20^th Century

so that now every one

has a Lamborghini or Ferrari

with a Kalashnikov

in the back seat

Here a wide-eyed crazy painter

or so how he looked

still creates the images

now long after both are gone

as if these two flat creations

could see into this future

where we experience a locked door

afraid of the neighbors

shy of the others

who shop like us at Walmart

where the greeter wears an hijab

in an Iowa city

who smiles as she checks

the receipt

for her corporate bosses

certain you might be deceitful

with unpackaged

toilet paper

and cases of bottled water

A painting sees more than its subject

It often sees the people

who many of us can't see

and don't want to

Barry G. Wick