A pliable cancer
blithely swept across faces
of noblewomen
smearing ignorant flesh
with stark virginity;
painting untruths
with wide brushstrokes
of steely white lead;
make-up poison
leeched into skin:
a macabre osmosis.
A sign of wealth
status, prestige;
a white-painted face
meant times indoors
while hired help tilled land.
Venetian ceruse:
the most expensive cosmetic
hiding a price tag of jaded truth:
hair loss
(high forehead:
Elizabethan beauty ideal)
skin defects (scarring/blemishes),
slow poisoning,
probably death.
Even Elizabeth I
allowed her visage to be cast,
framed by lily-white foreboding;
its application constant
to hide smallpox scars –
a fated fatality
lurked outside chamber doors
swaying on soundless steps
to a dowdy dirge
paving a route
to lay in state
at Westminster Abbey.
Symbolic of aristocracy
even donned by men;
many fell foul
of its spectral illusion.
The Countess of Coventry
died at 27: a devout user.
Isabella d’Este, suffered its pangs:
“smeared face”,
“dishonestly ugly”
“dishonestly made up”,
epithets ascribed her.
All victims of vanity.
Its alabaster sinews
tore deep,
clutching souls
(countless)
stretching back —
to Roman times,
ancient Egypt (kohl) and Greece…
A smooth complexion
of piqued femininity,
with rouged cheeks/lips
strove as perfection;
hollow compliments
dribbled profusely
from adoring mouths:
“fair as snow”,
“bright as moonlight”
These echoey lost words
now encircle the dead;
corpses that are now far from “fair”
are trapped, buried tight
within shrouds of perpetual night.
ABOUT:
Emma is a mother and English teacher. She has poetry published in various literary journals and magazines. She enjoys writing flash fiction and short stories also. Emma won Wingless Dreamer’s Bird Poetry Contest of 2022 and her short story entitled ‘Virginia Creeper’ was selected as a winning title by WriteFluence Singles Contest in 2021. Her first novel is entitled Shelley’s Sisterhood which is due to be published in May 2023.
EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING
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