in what gilded cages
they live out their lot of rosé days
and bourbon nights
cheeks prickling eyes glowing
with the satisfaction
of another’s job
well done
how do they silence when they
creep between their chambers
late at night all those doors
squealing with disuse
how in portraits
do their artists capture the lurid
shade of self-inflated fury
or for sympathy do they display
jagged edges and disappear
again eyes glazed
with fear and longing to shelter
in those jangling cells of luxury
drawing close their velvet drapes
against an inner darkness
teeming with the fervent desires
and untested truths
of a feverish equatorial night
(c) 2019, by Hannah Six
Image: Evelyn De Morgan, The Gilded Cage (ca 1900 – 1919),
oil on canvas, via Wikimedia Commons
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