Poem by Donnie Welch

A Martian Visits the MFA Boston- After Humanity

Degas’ Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer still stands.
Her shoulders, caked in layers of dust, molded
as though they were made to quiver, but never do.

Around her, the works of Degas’ peers,
the Impressionists, are moth ridden. Holes chewed
through the rainbow array of colors on the canvases.

But the dancer, what is she waiting for?
Is it a queue? The first notes from an orchestra?
Or the sly smile of Degas from behind the mold?

Standing on her toes, arms back, neck out,
a position of practiced, perfected, agony.
What price did these people pay for their art?

Donnie Welch is a senior at Emerson College. His poems Have been published in The Emerson Review, Whippersnappers, Gangsters in Concrete, Rare Breed and Concrete magazine. He has a collection of children’s poetry entitled Who Gave These Flamingos Those Tuxedos, published through Wilde Press (2013). Most importantly, he firmly believes in the healing power of Swedish Fish.

Allison Goldin is an artist living in Cambridge. Her work is a collection of spontaneous drawings from the imagination. The most common link throughout her art are the semi-recognizable creatures scattered amongst and bringing together the surrounding doodles. She is currently studying Illustration at The School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.