Ekphrastic poem
Based on the painting Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madame X) by John Singer Sargent:
Madame X
Diamond bodice straps reach up
to the profile of Madame,
the cutting taper of her nose and chin
much like a seraphim
rehearsing verse.
Center stage, her bulbous thighs,
the pale chastity of her shoulders,
her solipsistic breasts-
all are rose petals
sprouting from her gaunt waist,
rooted in the earth of her dress.
The spider legs of her left hand
mount a collapsed black paper fan
against her hip.
Stage left,
her right hand is a dancer
splayed on the stage of a table,
bending its knuckle knees,
and the thumb is an arm
reaching in a final dying posture
at its audience.
The vortex of brown,
the nothing encroaching
on the small of Madam'e back
as her eyes squint stage right
is the curtain called over the bun of her hair
and the temple of her form
as the room dims.
Madame X
Diamond bodice straps reach up
to the profile of Madame,
the cutting taper of her nose and chin
much like a seraphim
rehearsing verse.
Center stage, her bulbous thighs,
the pale chastity of her shoulders,
her solipsistic breasts-
all are rose petals
sprouting from her gaunt waist,
rooted in the earth of her dress.
The spider legs of her left hand
mount a collapsed black paper fan
against her hip.
Stage left,
her right hand is a dancer
splayed on the stage of a table,
bending its knuckle knees,
and the thumb is an arm
reaching in a final dying posture
at its audience.
The vortex of brown,
the nothing encroaching
on the small of Madam'e back
as her eyes squint stage right
is the curtain called over the bun of her hair
and the temple of her form
as the room dims.