After “The Bath” by Pierre Bonnard in the Tate Modern Art
Gallery in London
The Bath
by Ellaraine Lockie
She stares
straight ahead
Stretched
out soaking au naturel
in a stark
white tub
and
trance-like state
Blind to
his brush strokes
Pierre
Bonnard's wife subject
Portrayed
at a time
when water
therapy
was
treatment for tuberculosis
Or
obsessive neurosis
One wonders
whether she
wasn't
already dead
The water
having fatally failed
And the corpse
prepared for viewing
with oil
paint preservation
Bonnard's
depiction
a conjugal
composition inquest
Or whether
she has
succumbed
to coma
Paint-paralyzed
by the parade
of people
invading her privacy
The Tate
Gallery
a modern
municipal bathroom
Previously
published in Taproot Literary Review
Painting
can be viewed:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonnard-the-bath-n04495
Ellaraine Lockie is a widely published and awarded author of poetry, nonfiction books and essays. Her chapbook, Where the Meadowlark Sings, won the 2014 Encircle Publication’s Chapbook Contest. Her twelfth collection has been released as an internal chapbook, Love Me Tender in Midlife, in IDES from Silver Birch Press. Other recent work has received the Women’s National Book Association’s Poetry Prize, Best Individual Collection from Purple Patch magazine in England for Stroking David's Leg, winner of the San Gabriel Poetry Festival Chapbook Contest for Red for the Funeral and The Aurorean's Chapbook Spring Pick for Wild as in Familiar. Ellaraine teaches poetry workshops and serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh. She is currently judging the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contests for Winning Writers.
Ellaraine Lockie is a widely published and awarded author of poetry, nonfiction books and essays. Her chapbook, Where the Meadowlark Sings, won the 2014 Encircle Publication’s Chapbook Contest. Her twelfth collection has been released as an internal chapbook, Love Me Tender in Midlife, in IDES from Silver Birch Press. Other recent work has received the Women’s National Book Association’s Poetry Prize, Best Individual Collection from Purple Patch magazine in England for Stroking David's Leg, winner of the San Gabriel Poetry Festival Chapbook Contest for Red for the Funeral and The Aurorean's Chapbook Spring Pick for Wild as in Familiar. Ellaraine teaches poetry workshops and serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh. She is currently judging the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contests for Winning Writers.
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