Panel Two of the Triptych; “Birth, Death... aaand Action”. This love letter to New York City where Vincent D’Onofrio forged his artistic journey since the Eighties to the present day. Collaborating with Laurence Fuller, in the new mediums of poetic cinematic fine art, to create a story in three panels ~ redefining the concept of the triptych in contemporary digital art. This body of work is the genesis of their new artistic partnership Graphite Method ~ www.graphitemethod.xyz Her hair blonde almost white. Her features a gentle perfection. Penny sitting quietly. She had a stillness about her, how she held herself. Not cold. Warm. Her eyes showed nothing still at all. Super sonic thoughts flowed through her. A constant recognition of every specific thing around her. One after the other being taken in. One after the other as I watched her eyes show shock, disgust, pleasure, astonishment and surprise ~ as she reconciled each and every tiny event as it happened in real time. I wanted to know the details of every thought as she took it all in. Her table was full. This place was far from hers but to me she owned the night. Amongst this crowd of New York life I fell right then and there. My eyes on her from across the room. With some kind of magic she looked up and caught me. We were locked on now and through her eyes, I knew she may have looked quiet but no she wasn't quiet at all. Her eyes stayed on me a moment. She blinked, yet kept her eyes on me. And then she turned from me to nowhere. That was plenty thought. That was a lot. The man in her midst had no comfort on his face. He seemed to only watch the crowd making sure no one would steal his catch, his prize. My first thought of him was not complimentary. He should've known this woman was not a catch, she's not a prize and she ain't his anything. His eyes peering around the room. Pathetic how he tried his hardest to make her his and never knew deep down he could never own her. And somehow even then I knew that no one ever could. I continued to watch. As their eyes never met. Not once. His eyes shifted. A hunting expedition. He'd never have enough sight to see me. I could have parked myself in his lap and he'd feel my weight only. I was to remain unseen on this night. Because on this night only Penny would see me. I was to stay invisible to all but her.. Her eyes to nowhere, her eyes waiting. She tore pieces off a napkin. One at a time they left her fair skin'd hand as she built a little area of snow flakes on the table. She now stared through her loaded table, ghosting all in front of her, everything. Nowhere. She knew I was there, that I was part of her task at hand. Each piece of napkin floating down on the table, like the tick of a second on the hand of a clock, I was counting the pieces with her. As the napkin diminished so did our patience. That last piece of the napkin fell and we seemed to rise at the same time. She was up on her feet and up I went with her. Penny excuses herself from the table. The dog at the table, had a look of confusion as though he just lost his bone. She moved, I moved, the crowded room as our camouflage. And it was then as we locked eyes again and we merged and under a magic umbrella we both just disappeared. Two hellos, my hand took hers and then gone from there. I could not believe how much the softness of her voice matched her face, her body. It was hard to move my eyes away from her pale blues. Every time I looked forward I missed her and needed to turn and find her again. This was a night I thought no matter what happened I would never, ever forget. I could hardly speak a word. Yet managed a question; “Could you tell me about yourself?” I asked. “You don't want to know me.” she said. “I'm the last person you want to know.” That's when I fell deeper. The feeling inside me now was a heavy feeling in my stomach. A load of feelings for a first encounter. My fingers holding hers were the only thing keeping me from dropping 500 stories down but I only wanted to grow in weight ~ I invited the heaviness. I believed for a moment she was an Angel from beyond the clouds and she was gifting her presence to me. Damn I was reeling. “It's ok” I thought. “Angel no angel I could not stop myself from feeling. The want for her, the dark need for her.” The maleness she ballooned inside of me pressing, pushing everything outward. Expanding every part of me until I felt I would burst. Yes I just hung there like that. “Tell me more” I said “you aren't allowed to say only that.” I said in jest. She answered. “I like you and I have no idea why.” I just watched her lips speak. “You look so heavily interested in me.” “What's this about? I'm Penny by the way.” What an introduction I thought. “How funny” I thought. “I'm Vincent” I said. “What's this about Vincent? Why is it?” She said. “What’s your thing?” She stopped us. Penny let go of my hand and as we faced each other my hand finding her spine, I kissed her. She kissed me and then pulled herself slightly back and said "yes" and she leaned into me and we kissed longer and deeper. We stayed pressed against each other from our mouths to our knees. She turned away grabbed my hand and lead me away from that kiss, that spot where we kissed we left behind. I marked that spot in my mind. A photograph, a moving picture. She looked back at me. She blurted out. “I am not available. I am unhappy but i'm not available.” She smiled a confused smile and turned back as she pulled me along. “Penny was smarter than me.” Was the thought that came into my head. “Then what?” I said. “Then why are you pulling me along on 7th ave?” She said “I'm not in Colorado anymore. This is New York and I am stuck where I am and I have no intentions of leaving my situation no matter how unhappy I am. It would be too hard, way too hard and I don't have it in me. Not anymore. You.” She said to me. “You are not allowed to rescue me. You may look like a knight in shining armor but you are not that. I am not your damsel in distress although I am damsel.” She laughed. “You don't want to be that Vincent and I don't want you to be. I do not want you to be that. I am not that.” Penny repeated. A slash across my ribs. “Can we kiss again?” She said. “We did, for a moment and then we walked some more.” So many thoughts were spurred by her announcement. I had no words. Too young. Too dumb. Too dumb founded. My stomach, that feeling. I hung on. Now like an old photo from my life, her in front of her building. A stairway to a large door. “One last moment.” I thought. “This will end soon.” How could it start so fast and end just as quick. My mind, my heart taking snap shots of her in each fleeting moment as if it could help this nite go on forever. We kissed again so deep, so very deep. And sharply pulling away she released me. Penny's hands let me go. I dropped down the those 500 stories way past oblivion. As I went down she rose up those stairs and unlocked this wooden chunk of a door. I could smell the inside air of that home as she cracked the door open. The air from inside wafted over me with the scent of oak and money. She looked back at me her expression was melancholy. I could feel that I reminded her of a life she'd thought she would have had. The original plan gone bad. Her sadness was as real as my confusion, as real as the want and need for her I felt in my stomach. “Don't you come back her again” she said. “Don't you linger. Don't you ever do that. Not ever.” She said. I looked up at her smiling. “Promise me won't ever waste your time lingering around something you can't have. Go get the things you can have. You are a bright light mister.” I scoffed at the notion. In rebuttal she took a couple of steps down toward me. “Don't you ever linger mister.” Now no words. My smile left me. She was in tears and then she was gone. She disappeared inside and as the big wooden door shut. My stomach grew cold. A city bus screeched by as it scored my emotions. Impossible to climb 500 stories now. She wasn't down here with me and she was no longer above. I'm strong enough I thought. Of course we could give it a go. She has no idea what I can take on. “Penny we could...” My stomach twisted. A flood filled my brain. “Damn. She's gone. She is not mine. She is Penny and she is not mine and I am lingering. Damn.” How dare I fall and fall and fall. Stupid me. Penny and stupid me. I'm way past oblivion. I sat on her stairs a police car sang by. My vision blurred by blue and white. Penny behind me. It got me on my feet. This woman, she could have not been more clear enough with me. I wondered “What was she in? What was going on behind that big oak door? Where is she now? Can she still see me? Is she watching me? Should I show her something? Should I now. Do not linger. Don't you ever do that.” I looked to the door and I looked to a darkened window. I found words but they weren't the words I thought I'd say. As I started to speak my voice took me over. “Jesus Penny, ok ok I'm going. I won't. You won't let me. Jesus, Penny.” I walked a few steps and a few backwards and a few more. Away went her stairs and her door and her window and a way went the last few hours. “Damn, Penny ok. I'm not lingering! Ok?” I was stricken with sadness now. “This is me not lingering Penny!” It was hard to turn. So hard to turn away. It was the only way, the only thing I could do. I couldn't go back and bang on that door. I could not cause something more to happen between us. It was something she clearly couldn't, didn't want. "You don't want to be that Vincent and I don't want you to be" She needed our walk. and she needed me. Now she needed me to go away. She asked me not to stay. I walked and walked. I guess I've left to find the things I could have. “You are not that she said. I am not that.” Penny said. And In my heart and not my head, as I bared my soul.. I have not lingered. By Laurence Fuller and Vincent D’Onofrio, 2023 (The poetry of Penny is performed by Kate Spare.)