Seated charcoal figure
o bringer of freedom
o darling loathsome creature
your veined cheek caressed by
unlearned lessons which caught
in gravity’s gaze slide snail-like
toward the puddle at your feet
The lost face-forward salute
your titian glow their eyes
like matches spark desire each
then thrown spent and smoking
on your cache of volatile words
and empty anthems no fearsome
stars for you each inharmonious
bar performed by rote soon will
rewind into the fathomless
erasure of merciful Time.
(c) 2017, by Hannah Six
Image: The Rape of Europa, by Noël-Nicolas Coypel, 1727
Philadelphia Museum of Art
