at night, after facing the day’s aggression,
I approach a large black-and-white portrait of his father’s first wife
the choice is a kind of paradox
that needs to promote pale skin as attractive
saleswomen in cosmetics departments look at me admiringly, as if their products had anything to do with my youthful pale glow.
I read her great strength of
character, and her position as
the first woman to lead
American dream
upfront Along with the usual
greed, lust, and the other five
deadly sins – it also has
anorexic wonders
– first a record store/ fashion boutique in Brixton
she lounges around her ritzy offices
we gaze at racks of clothing and shoes, cottons, silks, leather
But in the washroom she keeps phosphate-free toilet cleaner.
A picture that ran around the world
smiled in an abstracted, motherly way
she lunched on some healthy fruit
copied everywhere
I saw it in Argentina
it is where the eyes begin
in clear, blonde, brown, auburn, slate gray, and black.
She doesn’t spend any of palest, palest blond
to a deep, deep, bitter brown,
and a black velvet stretch to die for
it is enough to have me like a heart-seeking missile, desperate to touch, to feel, to throw off everything
I’m wearing and let her dress me