BODY IMAGE Poem: La Hollandaise, by Doug Tanoury

In Sickert’s painting of a woman,
Nude, half-reclining, is only visible,
Shadowy and dim,
In diffused moonlight.

The iron bedstead, so like our own,
Frames her form paused
In a moment between
Staying and leaving,

So naked and beautiful,
Caught contemplating the action
That will happen next, and
I am reminded of you.

The bedlinen still warm from you
After you leave, and me
Holding in my mind of the image
Of you remaining

Long after you are gone
To attend some distance domestic task
On the other side of Woodward Ave.
And the world— the far westside.

– Doug Tanoury – February 26, 2025