“The Girl with Green Eyes” by Henri Matisse
a Madam X with no other name,
like most of Matisse’s women
stares back at him; she’s hardly
camera-shy. She has donned
a special hat for the occasion,
deep-crowned and shallow-brimmed
with a contrasting riband.
You can barely tell that she parts
her auburn hair on the side.
Her neck is completely covered
up to her chin by a white collar,
stiff as a wooden bobbin, but
definitely larger than life size.
She refuses to smile. Perhaps,
it is because her lipstick has
smeared the corners of her mouth. Or
she is unhappy with the arrangement
of unfinished paintings and fabric
hanging behind her. She could feel
her face is almost lost among
all those patterns and pieces and
cluttered back wall. It couldn’t be
the smock she has donned. Tomato
red and covered with golden dragons
and arches and a solitary
walk in the vermilion garden.
About Deborah H. Doolittle
