Frida Kahlo Speaks:
Fidelity is a bourgeois virtue. Diego Rivera There are two Fridas, the one you want, and the one you don’t want. You might have thought I wore this white dress for you, Diego, piled this hibiscus in my hair, threaded azul chunks of sky around my throat. But I did it for myself. I paint myself. Look at me. I wear a necklace of thorns; a hummingbird dangles between my breasts. My heart is a bloody shrine trapped in a corset of pain. But I will rise, a Bird of Paradise. I will enter your body like a jolt of caffeine. At last I have learned that life is this way, and the rest is window- dressing. I will carve Viva la Vida on this watermelon, like a tombstone. I hope the ending is joyful, and I hope I never return. Barbara Crooker This poem was first published in Barbara Crooker's book, More, C&R Press, 2010. Barbara Crooker is the author of eight books of poetry; Les Fauves is the most recent. Her work has appeared in many anthologies, including The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Commonwealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, The Poetry of Presence and Nasty Women: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse. www.barbaracrooker.com
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
The Ekphrastic Review
COOKIES/PRIVACY
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesJoin us: Facebook and Bluesky
May 2025
|