Poem in response to Girl Before a Mirror
By Pablo Picasso 1932. Oil on canvas.
What happens when the side that breathes
pulls herself into the side that is glass?
On one side, a feather fills where hair would fall
on the full-faced figure baring breast, heart and womb.
Black and white stripes form a spine.
A segmented arm with white fingers reaches through the blue.
Both halves share ribs of blood and black bone.
On the darker side the dream bleeds.
Looking outside her reflection the lone eye cries to a half moon.
The transgression of the side from light hides a green heart.
Oval orange framing covers a white shadowed halo.
The mirror image waits in robes of sapphire with purple lining.
Shapes and silence side by side until
transcending the glass darkly the other turns face to face.
CQ (2010) and The Old Red Kimono (2010)