Maniera

St. Martin of Tours, Domenikos Theotokopoulos
—Art Institute of Chicago

How does one know an El Greco?
I can't say, but I just know
something's always out
of place. No, it's not

astigmatism. It is the thing done, seen.

Back to Old El. Take Saint Martin,
pictured here quite like the effete, teenage boy
who lives on my street, who stares unseeing
at, well, everything
from his acute angle
of repose at the curb.
The beggar, however, looks up,
pleading. This bare
beggar, the hairless, flowing flesh