She Bathes in the Water Color Wash of Internal Light by Jeannie E. Roberts

After an image by Charles Dana Gibson (American Illustrator, 1867-1944)

Your somber mood and sloping cigarette 

may pair well with the favored cocktail of your creator — 

though, gin garnished with pickled onion is an acquired taste.

Gibson Girl, 

you appear weary as you pose in inky nonchalance. 

Do your arms shield you from darker orbits? 

One day, 

the barrier between you and everything will dissolve —

perhaps you’ll awaken in water color wash,

slides of blush, streams of coral, 

where tangerine meadows flow near spills of pastel, 

as slips of subtlety move toward internal light.

Even pen-and-ink lives, 

linear narratives, 

can render softness, 

when focus buoys 

with eyes at center, 

where sentience is breath.

Jeannie E. Roberts has authored four poetry collections and two children's books. Her work appears in print and online in North American and international journals and anthologies. She is poetry editor of the online literary magazine Halfway Down the Stairs. When she’s not reading, writing, or editing, you can find her drawing and painting, or outdoors photographing her natural surroundings.