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Angela Dove

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Self-portrait as a Drowned Man

Angela Dove reading Self-portrait as a Drowned Man 1575.7 KB
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He’s naked, eyes closed, head slumped, his sunburned hands
cupped over his crotch, his skin mysteriously soft.
There are a few domestic props, a piece of chintz
and a marble statue of a nymph.
He must have rearranged the little studio a hundred times
before deciding to pose as a corpse.

In early photographs we see tormented sitters staring out
into frozen space, clamped in head braces, gritting their teeth
searching for a likeness, proof they did exist,
egotistical, curious, afraid.
But in this one you can imagine what’s just out of shot,
still warm clothing, a stained shirt, and work boots,
the rumpled bed, a death’s-head moth
whirring on the window pane, falling exhausted.

You hear the postman crunching up the gravel path
with another bill, smell the dregs of last night’s Merlot,
imagine the landlady of Number 23, Quartier des Batignolles,
hammering on the door,
“Monsieur Bayard I know you’re in there,” no reply
as he pours himself blissfully into the lens
and on to the salt soaked paper.

Angela Dove is a visiting lecturer at The Cass Business School, City of London, and at Middlesex University. She founded the series of London poetry events, “Cats Night Out”, the only sustained series of reading events in London that concentrates on promoting women poets. Her pamphlet collection Cabinet of Wonders (2002) is published by Vernier Press.

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