Viola Riot

Paper crane woman
sits for a portrait
upon a pedestal
of once-upon-a marriage band
softly humming
‘I heard it through the grapevine’
; O say, she’d rather
be dressed in
leathers and arrogant lipstick
a violent shade of Viola Riot
not hot and bothered
in sour cream lavender sateen
all silver slivers of porcelain lace.
This cameo, a guest-ghost appearance –
her obsidian eyes boring into
an absent animal husbandry audience.

peony blossom
drowses in summer’s heat
origami paper

© wildchild47 2023

for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #308: featuring John Singer Sargent’s “Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw” as the Ekphrastic starting point.

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