Elizabeth Winder
More Evidence of Pastel Depravity
(Notes on Francois Boucher, black chalk with touches of white on fawn paper)
Faun resembling fawn resembling suede. Not a/ milkmaid, not/ made, Maiden.
In fresh apron—
(because drawings place us at the heart of forms)
her tender colds. Chalk, curl,
We look for the skillful, the fine—
shepherdess foot, a baby-toed biscuit.
Hand turning hoof.
Not the object itself one wishes to see,
(Our Lady of Shampooed Sheep)
but the Imitation Itself
Felicitous Imitation.
In Defense of the Corset (Small Illustrations of the Outfit of Intimacy)
“Nature…has had her day…” Huysman, Au Rebours
1. Montaigne. And the change sweet Dissect means Adore now.
Ambrose Pare has seen on the dissection table these pretty girls with slender waists, lifted the
skin and flesh and showed us ribs, overlapping. Livers long and lean.
2. Help the Dressmaker decide on one Corset’s Naming (circle one).
a. Invalidated Kitten
b. Teacup Wolf
c. Touch of Calcium in the Hay
d. Minx of the Weakened Spines
3. Au Lycee, Helene X Writes home.
Chere Maman, I have been drawn in inch by month. The spleen stretches out, all lynx and cream,
astonished at its own ability to inflame the blood.
4. Small Waists Pernitiously Affected
Helene relies more on the companionship of her spleen, who is named Absorption Cat.
6. Naptime
Hush and a rumor of someone who knows how to look in looking’s poach and peach. Nectarines
can be stoned or skinned in the same way as peaches. But there now. Looking how long. My
Lupine. My Tentative.
Elizabeth Winder’s poems have appeared in FIELD and Phoebe.