Alexandra Isacson

No. 4: (The Elixir of Balance)

1.  “My Last Duchess”
          For Robert Browning

Sharing naked chardon­nay, she kissed his mouth & dark stip­pled face as she sift­ed through can­vas­es char­coaled & cray­oned in winter’s dusk & oth­er nudes. Enraptured in the moment, she cast off her silk self & dis­ap­peared between cur­tains of oil & light.

2.  The Broken Stiletto

Standing in the sun­shine, she tried to bal­ance. He said, “Just stand there-  I want to look through your dress one more time.”  Long after­wards, she looked for him in the back­drop of the cast shad­ows of oth­er men & even some­times turned to look into their faces. She didn’t know what pos­sessed her to return the shoes, but she nev­er wore the dress again.

3.  Pink Flushes

Her gar­den pop­pies burst in hot pink flush­es & spi­raled in pearles­cent silk slips. Then, the ten­der-veined petals blew in flamed indi­gos from summer’s third eye scorch­es. She pre­served the bones of the sol­stice in her Bisque clay body.

4. Feathers

In the dis­tance, you could see the blue-shad­owed Superstitions. Below, snowy egrets waved over mud­dy, chop­py lakes, light­ing down in cot­ton­woods, join­ing a flock of cor­morants. Wisps of white feath­ers float­ed on the cut glass of mirrors.

~

Alexandra Isacson is the author of Poetic Anthropologies (Medulla Publishing, 2011), a poet­ic trib­ute to the visu­al arts and human­i­ties. She has been nom­i­nat­ed for both a Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net Anthology. Visit her at alexandraisacson.com