Dying to be Grace, by M. Riley

Lee Miller, Neck, photography by Man Ray (USA). c. 1930.

Dying to be Grace

I trace her profile                                                                  
with the cursor
on my desktop,
Lee Miller
in silver tones.

I follow this line of beauty
for no real reason--
a trail along a hillside;
dark clouds drift
above a marble cliff--

her lips with slightest part,
somewhere in the dark of
love
or sex--

the line of her neck--
down to the valley    
of her breasts,
shadows form
where fevered thoughts
come to rest

dark clouds gather
above a marble cliff--
a confession,    
a lift and fall,
a ripping through proofs
to thunderous applause

and all this drowning  
under volumes
of her face.  
Her lost,
Modern face.
All dying
to be grace.

M. Riley

​M. Riley is a poet and library director.  His poems have appeared in many anthologies over the past few years. His most recent poems have been included in Dos Gatos Press 100 Word Anthology, Weaving the Terrain, and forthcoming Mutabilis Press, Enchantment of the Ordinary (2018).