those exquisite little
arms
tinselled with a smile
never that for very long
their brightness
radiant
nothing but
that same smile
induced
to feel
this swing of the pendulum
when he would find
so natural
an occasion
of his jealousy
a woman
a texture
engineered
by his counsel
a taste
a spectacle
an intonation
which she alone
perverse as
this other need
visible, material
the chemical process of
some pleasure
tender and submissive
suited her
any money
capable of
rupture
nothing untoward
seared and tore
the words
how easy
an act of treachery
she had gone
the sole specific
sufficed
some sorcery
he must return
not even conscious
to see her
the same pain, a sensation
over his tired eyelids
emerged
the necessary, unalterable
thought
plausible
some ulterior motive
pretended to
indefinitely
that look of sorrow
she pretended
saying "my" and "mine"
to comfort him
her interest
measured the extent of
night
another channel
straying too near
a cupboard
its drawers
the chrysanthemum
whatever hour of the day
our desire
that fictitious
domestic existence
their several flower-beds
still
in evening dress
the purely decorative
thronging
sprung from
beak-like points
suggest
hyacinths and
the little dressmaker's
attic
the habit of seeing
his mistress
in readiness
each anfractuosity
the window
to a set of rooms
Marthe Reed is the author of three books: (em)bodied bliss (Moria Books 2013), Gaze (Black Radish Books 2010) and Tender Box, A Wunderkammer with drawings by Rikki Ducornet (Lavender Ink 2007). A fourth book, Pleth, a collaboration with j hastain, is in press (Unlikely Books) She has also published four chapbooks as part of the Dusie Kollektiv. Her poetry has appeared in New American Writing, Golden Handcuffs Review, New Orleans Review, HOW2, MiPOesias, Fairy Tale Review, Exquisite Corpse, BlazeVOX, and The Offending Adam, among others. An essay on Claudia Rankine's The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue appears in the June 2012 issue of American Letters and Commentary.
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