Viridius

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

Painting: Anguish, 1878 Artist: Friedrich Schenek

Feast of the Ravens

Too early late winter lamb Still and cold in the snow

The ewe bleating Pleading for her child To come away

The ravens’ assemblage Eyes bright and mystery deep

Unperturbed by anguish Fluffing iridescent midnight feathers Against the murderous cold

The forever hungry host Presses in Speaking harsh hard beaked Threats

The defeated ewe Abandons

Her lamb

A feast for Jostling jovial birds Scattering gore In the snow With bacchanalian Abandon At the end of Winter.

-Skye

Mrs. Robinson

Mrs. Robinson

I noticed her reclining in the shadows at the back of room gazing at me

Beware they said she is older than you think

Concerned

She might quiet her gnarled desires with my flesh

I gazed at her in repose

The white flesh heavy in its powder The tinge of desperation Pooled in the corner of her eye

Curious

I wanted her anyway

-Skye

René Gruau

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.

Only Words

Come with your dark ink scrawling loose letters

The loops and runs make knots that hold me fast

While you take everything leaving only notes

Slinking off to exploit the spoils

Of my ruined skin.

-Skye

Image Subject: Friedemann Vogel Ballet Dancer Photographer: Not known Source:Peepchic

Defying Gravity

Defying Gravity is possible Consider when you left me I stayed in perfect Balance In defiance Of the inescapable Magnitude Of Your

Receding

Just prior to crashing to the ground.

-Skye

Plague Doctor

So here in the shining city on the hill we watched the broad plain with its shifting grasses always thinking the trouble would arrive at the gate announcing itself.

But no, it crept in in ones and twos broken glass lungs etched in X-rays seeping in under the gate.

We could not fathom the wave of misery that broke us open.

The burbling cry of wet breath that choked the air filling every corner.

We wailed for answers.

The plague doctor came surveying the heaps of dead plying us with platitudes and potions crying “Let them inject bleach!”

Pushing out the dead early in the morning I saw him shambling down the hill.

Empty eyes behind his mask and blood on his hands.

-Skye

Source: Visualtastic101

Modern Man

Bits of plastic Bone buttons Baling wire

We come from the dust Only to remake ourselves In our own Image.

-Skye

Artist: Nester Formetera Source:peepchic

The Last Kiss

We came together in the end Lips pressed close Eyes closed to who we had become Just before parting.

-Skye