Bouguereau’s oily angel,
Egalité devant la mort,
also known to us as
Equality before Death, the one who
hurries to hover at the earthen table
that moment of sundown with
outstretched wings already darker than
arms conveying just a gossamer white sheet of
lengthening shadows over half-closed eyes lips
to cover the naked pallor the pelvic
mound of lustrous brown hair and
feet flopped apart like
loosed flower petals
to cover the one last look of life bearing
death or to warm as if asleep and
about to open eyes to
a darkening plane of clouds
an effort to awake(n) or let be
Egalité devant l’amour
Egalité devant la mort, oil on canvas painting, 121 x 269 cm, 1848. William Bougeureau.
Musée d’Orsay Collection. Public Domain.
Donna Fleischer is the author of five poetry books, most recently < Periodic Earth > (Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press) and Twinkle, Twinkle (Longhouse Publishers). Her widely anthologized poems appear in journals, including Contemporary Haibun, EOAGH, Kō, Marsh Hawk Press Review, Naugatuck River Review, Otoliths, and Spiral Orb. She received the support of a Tupelo Press – Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) residency and the University of Hartford Poetry Award. Donna may be found at donnafleischer.wordpress.com
