AFTER THE POSE.

AN ARTIST'S MODEL ON A COLD MORNING.

Hagelhymmer will
Leave her to dress. The
Study is over,
The drawing complete.

She feels the chill and
Wants to dress swiftly
While remembering
Always the first day

She’d posed for Henrich,
The taking off of
Clothes before a man
For the very first

Time, the blushfulness,
All fingers and thumbs,
Fumbling with buttons
And straps. And he just

Watched, as if he’d just
Discovered a new
Idea for a pose
And painting, the sharp

Excitement, the flash
In his eyes. Wait there,
He’d said, don’t move and
Had run off for some

Charcoal and paper
And she standing half
Undress, the coldness
Biting at her limbs.

He’d charcoaled a quick
Sketch, his fast fingers
Moving over the
Scrap of paper as

If over her flesh.
Hagelhymmer stands
By the bare window
Staring at the dull

Sky, his back to her,
Her fingers button
Up the dress, brush off
The blue cloth out of

Habit. She stares at
His hands behind his
Back, how they play like
Children at small games,

The fingers and thumbs,
His head to one side
Like one whose neck has
Been broken, standing

In silence, and she
Tracing with her thin
Finger the outline
Of his form in the

Morning air as he
Unknowing or not
Caring continues
Silently to stare.

Reviews

[Amberlilly]

Loved it.