Tom Mannion

Source: meryweird77

Hysteria

Straight Narrow Laced Up Tight

Bound by Respectability, domesticity, Mild virtuous Wife, mother, nothing more

Reflect, reflect Only wholesome Womanly airs

Do only proper Womanly things

Calling cards Genteel teas Birthing children Serving your Husband Father Brother

Reflect, reflect Only what is desired By others

But when you look in The mirror You see Your eternity and begin To scream

-Skye

Subject: Actress Mamie Whittaker, September 15, 1910 Photographer: Bassano Additional info: Whole-plate glass negative. Copyright, National Portrait Gallery, London Source: fawnvelveteen

Mamie Whittaker

I looked for you Everywhere

You had a bit part in Houp La! The almost forgotten circus musical extravaganza

You were the lion tamer of all things I cannot reconcile your angelic Countenance with Whips and roaring ravenous beasts.

And here your trail grows cold

Did a lion eat you? Did you marry and lose yourself? Did you grow hungry as your beauty fell away? Did you end up lifting your skirts in some London Alley?

One hundred and fifteen years on you are simply

Gone

Except for your sweet, copyrighted smile.

-Skye

Image Source: Headless-Horse

Early Morning Milking

Miguel Is there Turning on lights Cleaning teats

Full Udders Need to be emptied At 4 and 4 again

The farmer comes With the hay and the grain As his father did when he was The boy who cleaned the teats

At present he feeds the cows And Miguel Empties their udders

The farmer loves the barn The cows And his children Away at school

Miguel loves the barn The cows And his children so young and Far away In Caracas

Two men working together In the well-lit barn.

Source: Demonlure

Entanglement

Let us dance in the wind Like trees Tangling our branches Reaching for the sky.

-Skye

Brassaï • Notre Dame Gargoyle-Paris, 1932

Source: afrouif

Brassai and His Conversation with a Gargoyle, 1932

Tucked into Paris between the two world wars

You came to me with the bright lights twinkling on softly rising city noises

And caught me in my common pose rain worn contemplative knowing nothing and everything

Yes, the photographer cried-

I saw this immediately the flash illuminated everything and nothing of you

How can that be old roof top friend that I only think of you in the rain

When in my grainy photo you are always here

-Skye

Source: Frank "Silvers" Oakley, photograph from 1904

Frank “Silvers” Oakley, 1904

Frank the camera caught you slightly crumpled

the makeup peeling away in places so, one could almost see you

It must have been after the game all the indians had certainly left the field

Your eyes tired no cheerful play upon the cherry paint of your mouth

When the photographer smiled and ducked under the dark cloth

Did you notice the flash powder flare smoke and POP

Or were you wishing you could just play ball.

-Skye

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (Polish, 1849-1921)

Crowning the Poet, 1881

Women

Soft fair Roman women weave peonies and roses

Into fragrant crowns in the mild morning

To rest upon the marble brows of venerated poets filling villa courtyards with polite chatter

Receding deep within shadowy villas only when confronted by midday sun

Keeping alters to old gods keeping secrets bearing sons bearing daughters.

Long dead fictions with soft brush marks and heavy gold frames

These are the women who turn up in the Victorian Paintings contemplated in galleries on Sunday Afternoon

-Skye

Painting: The James Place, Andrew Wyeth, 1963 Watercolor and pencil on paper 30 X 21 in. Image Source: Sothebys.com

Andrew Wyeth Summering in Maine, 1963

In 1963 the James place sat Yankee straight Holding up the milk-colored sky Clapboards no longer gleaming Rough and ready salt grass Waving

You are there Sketching somewhere Beyond the flank of the house A scraggle of grass nipping at your ankles

You see that house And make it yours.

Source: Darren Almond Refractive Index I, 2018 aquatint 18 ¾ x 16 inches edition 25

Refractive Index

Waking in a rumple of bedclothes With you And the morning sun

The suncatcher Spins slowly on radiator updrafts

Bending light Into broken kaleidoscopes That travel across our Mingled skin.

-Skye

Image Source: Brassai, circa1946 Source: letaobloquista

Brassai Roaming Paris

After the churning of buildings and bodies After the round ups of 75,000 Jewish citizens After the ovens to the east stopped their burning

The streets were swept The babies boomed And lovely ladies once again wore real silk stockings

You saw them stop for moment

The baby was sleeping

The headlines were posted Every word shouting LARGE FONT BLACK and BOLD

“Francais! Reveillez-vous!” “Aux Hommes d’Ordre et de Bon Sens”

She gave his arm a Contented almost sleepy Squeeze

Politics was politics again Life was life again

The baby woke up and began to cry.

-Skye