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Jane Harland

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Family Portraits

Putting charcoal on her face,
twisting the lines of light and dark,
your mother re-invents herself
again and again in a series of exercises
as if striving to find her true identity.
She's both artist and model
with a full Dickensian cast supporting.

Her grand-daughter disguises herself
with a carnival mask from Venice;
a smoothly moulded split of red and gold,
with furls like stylised sun-rays
or the points on a jester's hat,
tipped with bells and music notes;
she hides behind it, unidentified.

And now she draws herself in blue and green,
bold outlines and water-colour washes,
applying a whole palette to her cheeks and nose,
letting the eyes speak for themselves,
like the eyes she once carved from Carrera marble
in her youth, in a penthouse studio
where sky tipped through the open roof
lighting a likeness so perfect
it rendered the original superfluous.

 

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