after Artemisia Gentileshci
How quickly fire moves against paper,
all consuming, how it swallows.
Watch how it swallows, all consuming:
Your little finger posed, cracked against the vine charcoal.
Your little finger tracing your lover posed, back cracked,
arched against the purple velvet sofa.
Your mother sat you against a velvet sofa, warned you of fire.
Judith decapitating Holofernes on the wall above you.
Above you, his beheading painted in oil and the technique—chiaroscuro.
See how light illuminates half her face, body weighing the sword.
See how light illuminates your lover, the source above her head,
the paper still white at her temple, at her breast.
The paper black as her body curves into the couch.
The charcoal moves like ash on your fingertips.
Your fingers blend ash into flesh….
How quickly fire moves against paper.
