HOLCOMB

My name is Tricia Marcella Cimera, and my piece is titled HOLCOMB. I’m a Poet. And so the poem is the main part of my artwork. It was inspired by Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which famously tells the story of the murdered, cluttered family, the two murderers, and the town of Holcomb, Kansas, in nineteen fifty nine, and later on as well. I focus on the aftermath of the murder. Initially, I thought I would present my poem in a collage fashion with historical photos and headlines surrounding the poem, but I went another way when I decided to just concentrate on three primary colors light blue, red, and yellow. I've also used two different sheets of vellum on a twelve by sixteen blue canvas. Because Herb Clutter, the patriarch of the family, was a wheat farmer. I've incorporated wheat in the four corners. I decided to use a paperback cover of In Cold Blood to mount my poem, as well as my blood on it to pay homage to my inspiration. And I've also used simple tack pins to hold things in place on the canvas. And this is my poem called Holcomb. Tonight, after the men leave, this white farmhouse is like a poem about quiet, softly ticking clocks. Faucet dripping, dripping photographs on the piano. Smiling at no one. Polished floors on creaking telephone on ringing. Purse gaping on the floor. Open throated outside. Fields stretch out below the moon. Animals move in their stalls. Farmhouses in the country mind their own business, keep their mouths shut. In the morning Sunday before church, two girls will walk up the staircase. This silent house called Nancy approach her bedroom, the door standing open, inviting them in to see. Thank you very much.