The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Girl on a Hill, by Frances Boyle

5/8/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Girl on a Hill, by Prudence Heward (Canada) 1928

 Girl on a Hill
 
She won’t make nice for the watcher. Her dirty feet,
soles exposed, appear large as her head. She sits
before a window or temple ruin. I  peer closer:
its verticals are not jambs or columns but tree trunks. 
Branches link overhead, smoky tendrils dark 
 
on the shadow side, with her smoothed-back 
flapper hair. And her face, steady half-profiled gaze, 
eyebrow lilt, stroke of cheekbone. Her full mouth 
uncurved, unsmiling. Bitchy resting face they’d call it
today. Unlike me, she can resist the expectation
 
for a primate fear-grin that telegraphs I’m harmless, 
I submit, don’t kill me. Some see her as wary, others
as brooding, ominous. Sure in her body, with an ease 
I envy, her motion arrested only by her own 
volition, her twinning with the tree. Her body
 
outlines one side of the opening, bends at her waist
and elbow mirror where bark meets level ground. 
Heward made her girl a caryatid, supporting 
the hazy arch of evergreen. Her head-tilt 
matches the tree-limb’s lean. To me, her neck
 
seems gilded, arm glazed. The artist’s oils
emulate not marble but supple muscled flesh, 
swathed and bare. Cant of hip beneath deep 
red drape of velvet, or perhaps nubbled jersey. 
Loose at waist, at bust for dancer’s ease, 
 
dancer’s movement in the world—solid, rooted, 
confident, not currying favour. I seek to feel 
through fabric that black earth, slightly damp,
to sense the yield of needle-bed against my left haunch 
and thigh, along my bare calf, the top of my toes
 
where they press the ground. Can I hear the river,
feel the wind that blurs the trees, the imprint 
of dirt on my naked soles? The Laurentians
beyond, clouds piling up blue upon them. Her
uncompromising regard, green leaves 
sprouting succulent at her feet.
 
Frances Boyle

This poem first appeared in Vox Viola Literary Magazine. This version is from the author’s collection, Openwork and Limestone (Frontenac House, 2022).

​Frances Boyle is a prairie-raised, Ottawa-based writer. She is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Openwork and Limestone (Frontenac House, 2022) as well as Seeking Shade, a short story collection (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020) and Tower, a novella (Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018). Frances’s recent/forthcoming publications include The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, The Honest Ulsterman and Ink Sweat & Tears. Formerly a long-time editorial team member at Arc Poetry Magazine, she is now a board member of The League of Canadian Poets and VerseFest, Ottawa’s poetry festival. For more, visit www.francesboyle.com and follow @francesboyle19 on Twitter/X and Instagram.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    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 Cookies
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Join us: Facebook and Bluesky
    @ekphrasticreview.



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic [email protected] 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead