Cargo

In Edouard Manet’s painting of Jeanne Duvall,
her bouffant gown covers the body’s scars
but not her face bearing the years she sold
to sit for the portrait her beau Baudelaire
covets to keep her with his memory
if, as he trusts, his eyes outlive her skin
darker than  his words flowing like honey 
filling phantom ships sailing Arctic seas.

(14 April 2013: II)

copyright 2013 by Floyce Alexander