X: Not Your Figurehead

A little poem exercise, influenced from a workshop I went to on Saturday. We picked a painting and then wrote from the perspective of some person, creature or thing in that painting. Here is my poem and the painting, you can try to guess what object I picked.

Don’t look at me

I am not to be desired

What you see as perfection

Is no more than the organic creation of nature

I am blemished

Though it is hidden from you

This body struggles to keep this posture

That you so worship

Let this body rest

I can feel the muscles aching 

The hand is shaking 

She wants no more

Don’t look at me

though I am as white as powder

this is not a sign of good health

Let us out of this dress 

I can feel the lungs screaming

As the mouth takes small gasps of breath

She is not a statue

She is not your figurehead

Madame X by John Singer Sargent, 1884