​A Professional Beauty (Madame X), by Karen G. Berry

Portrait of Madame X, by John Singer Sargent (USA) 1884 (after the salon, Sargent "fixed" the slipped strap on the painting)

Portrait of Madame X, by John Singer Sargent (USA) 1884

​A Professional Beauty (Madame X)
 
It was the strap that aroused ire, 
not a sartorial slippage, but a moral one. 
Sargent fixed it and kept you in his studio
an artist scalded by bad reviews.
He could stand before you sighing,
admiring the curve of your right arm,
lithe as the neck of a swan.
He could sink into the depths
of your dress, tease the fine 
chestnut curls at your neck,
admire your white skin,
pearl-soft as inner conch.
You were his, at least on canvas. 
 
Like Sargent, I stand before you, 
transfixed by your sharp nose, 
sharp enough to scent out 
social opportunity. 
Sargent set your pose, which seems 
to refuse the viewer, offering 
no more than the sight of you. 
That might be enough, but I see 
a professional beauty leaning back, 
one swift glance over her shoulder 
before she lifts the inky skirts 
gathered in her sinister hand.

Karen G. Berry

Karen G. Berry lives in Portland, Oregon, and works as a professional copywriter. She is interested in micro-societies, the strange and secret lives of children, and the heroic nature of everyday living. Karen's poetry has been published by Rust & Moth, Parks & Points, The Gilded Weathervane, Hot Pot Magazine, Subprimal, Panorama, Ekphrastic Review, and many other journals and anthologies, online and in print.