Chiaroscuro
Cole, Paula
Harbinger (1994)

Goya and El Greco, Gaugin and Van Gogh
Painted light in the darkness, chiaroscuro
Imagine we were a painting
A woman and a man,
Two lovers on a canvas
On is white, one is black.

Darkness and light will be married tonight in chiaroscuro
Your body on mine - two colors combined in chiaroscuro

Vermeer and Velazquez, Rembrandt and Rousseau
Painted perfect union, chiaroscuro
The man and the woman
The knife and the spoon
The xylem and the phloem
The sun and the moon

Chorus

How we lived a secret life from racist eyes
You said I couldn't understand you anyway I tried

But in this moment together, in our secret unity
Our skins become the still life, our souls epiphany