Luncheon on the Grass, by Edouard Manet (France) 1862, by Deborah Chow Strozier

Luncheon on the Grass, by Edouard Manet (France) 1862

Luncheon on the Grass, by Edouard Manet (France) 1862
 
Edouard, you want me to pose and look away
like a sweet nymph bathing, but I stare back at you.
 
Why am I sitting nude at this picnic with your clothed male 
friends? Cold cash. I don’t mind modeling like sweltering 
 
peaches or a casual toss of red cherries for 100 francs 
today and 100 francs tomorrow. At first I didn’t want 
 
to slip out of my dress, but you told me I was beautiful, 
a Venus de Milo. I would breathe in your painting forever. 
 
My bright eyes and pink lips prickle with restless bristles 
of your brush. Your fingers can’t smear my bold face 
 
resting on a pale, weary hand. Strokes of pastel skin
curve into my hips and my bent knee. I know
 
I’m not a mistress or a parasol lady hiding in a corset
and splashes of blue silk. As you paint dark leaves,
 
your Parisian gentlemen sway and laugh under
trees. You don’t know I want to paint my own face.
 
Deborah Chow Strozier 

Deborah Chow Strozier is a Chinese American poet. She is working on an ekphrastic chapbook. She won second place in the Salon 2008 Chapbook Competition for Lotus Leaves, published by Pudding House. Poetry was published in The Bitter Oleander, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Cricket Magazine, Ibbettson Street Press, and others. She served as the Vice-President of the Ohio Poetry Association from 2008 to 2010. She has worked 25 ​years as a Research Scientist at an international nutritional food company. She loves writing, painting, and photography.