Phantom Viewing
a decastich
You see me but you don't want to feel me.
I should be the print of an Old Master, full of demanding
perspective, or views from a cabin window:
something pretty
and easy to leave.
But perhaps there's a wolf in the clearing,
a skull in the lady's silk-folded lap,
and what's that barely noticed
in the corner of the prosecutor's photo,
so bright a red behind the blowing yellow leaves?
~October 2015
posted for real toads
Images: Briarmaid, © joyannjones 2013
Unknown Female Portrait, by Julius Leblanc Stewart, public domain via wikiart.org
