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Issue # 3 January 2011
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Nancy Scott


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Lady with Parrot

after an original collage by the author, 2010

 

The artist sketched the model in many poses,
imagined himself as her lover, the parrot a gift
from his heart. At night he dreamed that his hand
traced the line of her hip, soft curve of her breast,
his fingers brushing away a moist tendril or two
from her translucent cheek.

As she came less often to pose for him,
he sketched her from memory, his studio littered
with discarded drawings. When she reappeared,
her grace so inspired him, he finished the portrait
in one day, but look—the bird she is holding is not
the parrot. It had escaped its cage and flown away.