Her profile stately: black bangs, black mouth.
Her profile carved into a brooch.
Procured.
Her profile uncurtained, inured with light.
Preening, feral, shaken.
Her black bangs an unbroken body of water.
Her black bangs a curtain, a swimmer’s beacon.
Surf leaping, antlered.
Her arms heavier in water, a bouquet of leaves.
Her hands offset with square stems, white flowers.
Her hands leafing through the horehound.
Tralala lala.
Her hands owned.
This poem “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman (with Antlers)” originally appeared in Spectres of Modernism. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 209 (Summer 2011): 126-126.
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