Ten Years After Posing As Ophelia, by Polly Giantonio

Ophelia, by Sir John Everett Millais (England) 1851-52

Ten Years After Posing as Ophelia
            for Lizzie Siddal
            
I fight the chilled air now
as I fought the freeze then
and willed the water warm. 
 
I shiver in the birth bed -
Ophelia, I am you once again.
 
There is no lush riverbank 
no pansies or roses in this birth bed
where I lie in blood-soaked sheets.
Only an umbilical cord 
that garlands my stillborn's neck -
 
her tiny palms colder than yours, Ophelia.
My red hair tangles with beads 
of opium’s sweat and grief.

Polly Giantonio
​ 
Polly Giantonio's poems and work have appeared in various journals, including an interview published in Poets & Writers. She has been a long-time student of Prem Rawat, Ambassador of Peace. Polly resides in rural Vermont, USA.