This ripe apricot wants 

to rest her shoulder against soft surface, 
not rigid coat and tails, not celluloid collar 

and pomaded hair, not pince-nez’d. 
No epaulets or medals and ribbons. 

Let her hair fall loosely where it blends with blankets, 
not braided and spun in the day’s fashion, 

body draped in exotic thoughts, 
travel the world without a trunk, dive into the sea, 

close her eyes to the heat on a camel in the desert, 
not confined by corset and bustle. 

As her oleander tonic takes root, 
she enters that fine space between 

temporary and final sleep, that valley 
where she’s worth more than her father’s money. 

* Flaming June (oil on canvas, 1895)
by British painter Frederic Lord Leighton (1836–1896)

Painting is held by Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Image was downloaded from Wikimedia Commons in March 2025:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flaming_June,_by_Frederic_Lord_Leighton_(1830-1896).jpg

Bio: Barbara Krasner