Brian White
Painted Lady
Each curve perfect,
each line immaculate;
stunning symmetry
poised lightweight on a leaf.
The merest movement,
lightest breath,
must not cheat this moment
of its magic.
Outside, the sounds of chaos
rumble distantly.
Within, anxiety and care
reside; but here,
a still and silent peace,
a timeless time,
until you break the spell
and flutter hurriedly away,
to die perhaps,
or procreate,
as greyness clouds
the late September sky
and fills my mind with images
of beauty trapped within a glass,
in dazzling robes of tawny red
and sable, sapphire, pearl,
twirling- mea culpa!
to a shredded death.
each line immaculate;
stunning symmetry
poised lightweight on a leaf.
The merest movement,
lightest breath,
must not cheat this moment
of its magic.
Outside, the sounds of chaos
rumble distantly.
Within, anxiety and care
reside; but here,
a still and silent peace,
a timeless time,
until you break the spell
and flutter hurriedly away,
to die perhaps,
or procreate,
as greyness clouds
the late September sky
and fills my mind with images
of beauty trapped within a glass,
in dazzling robes of tawny red
and sable, sapphire, pearl,
twirling- mea culpa!
to a shredded death.
Page(s) 38
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The