She unknots the gold laces
of her stockings while he removes
his gloves of gray chamois … flashes of her white
shirt peer through the slash
of her bodice as she bends her neck
to remove the frenello of pearls
from her hair … he doffs the felt
berretta from his head as she
undoes her velvet belt and the jeweled rosary
that hangs from it … he removes his linen
tunic and his doublet of blue satin
as she slips off her Florentine garters …
the scalloped hem of her skirt
brimming with ermines brushes the floor,
the only sound to be heard
in the studio … they detach their silk
sleeves, let them fall to the floor
along with the garland of marigolds from her brow …
she undoes the silver buttons
of his shirt, he tugs out the coral silk
scarf next to her skin, tucked
into the neckline of her chemise …
then she drizzles hot mead
on a bare, white canvas …
Robert Thomas is the author of Dragging the Lake, published by Carnegie Mellon, and Door to Door, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa for the Poets Out Loud Prize and published by Fordham University. He is the recipient of a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Pushcart Prize.
*Photo courtesy of Saucy Salad.