Dose by Dose, by Jane Blanchard

The Absinthe Drinker, by Edgar Degas (France) 1876

Dose by Dose
 
No longer the coquette she was, she sits
beside a shaggy-headed man and stares
above the glass of absinthe which impairs
her health and happiness. Sometimes she quits
the stuff, but doing so gives rise to fits
of longing, then surrender. No one cares
enough to help her sort out her affairs,
or so she claims when any chance permits.
But mostly she is silent while she drinks
herself oblivious in the same café
of shadows every disappointing day.
She slumps—arms limp, legs crossed—and barely blinks
as though a measured potion might assuage
her sorrows either on or off the stage.
 
Jane Blanchard
 
This sonnet by Jane Blanchard of Augusta, Georgia, was first published in The French Literary Review. Jane’s new collection of poetry is Sooner or Later (Kelsay Books, 2022).