Portrait of a Young Man

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Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1477-78. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

I see your green underpainting shining Like Osiris, fertile but dead

Clopping footsteps pass across the gallery floor But I feel wrapped in olive skin on khaki walls

You stand out from your gallery companions Stark scarlet on icy sapphire sky

I can’t explain you­r enigmatic pull, Or why Michelangelo’s teacher painted puffy allergy-eyes

You refuse to look back at me Cold charcoal eyes fixed in that timid gaze

You’re not very handsome at all Even if you’re a full-lipped youth

I worry to see men in guarded parley behind your back But you’re performing ‘melancholic’ and don’t seem to notice

I dream of you repeatedly The museum is on fire, and I can only save one

So, I choose you To tenderly wrap beside my bed

When I bolt awake in panic, I check whether you’re still there

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Aimee Blackledge ©2023

Published in Facing the Fire, 2023.