An Elegy for the Girl Before
After Luca Giordano’s Perseus Turning Phineus and His Followers to Stone
miserable girlflesh now turned the color of your worries, the threat of your hair corrupted into hush for the pleasure of a glass-bottomed man.
he grips the havoc he’s made of your body, holds
it high above his well-blooded head, and profanes you into shield. a grotesque adornment. your destruction reframed destiny.
these days, the sight of your stilled face is enough to granite
anyone right where they stand. even he can’t bear to look at you. and isn’t that just like a man to recoil from the blunt work of his own hands.
