The Blood of the Fish

for Gustav Klimt

The painter is beautiful because he can see

the sway of a woman in a water snake. He names

a painting  Hope  and means with child. To him,

Eve  is not the bedmate of a serpent, she is a soft,

china-colored body for Adam to rest on. What is

Voluptuousness ? A pot-belly.  Excess ? A river

of red hair.  Poetry  is a girl swimming in a white dress.

Love  is a gypsy.  Sleep  is a witch. The most beautiful

girl in Vienna gave him her first kiss. She went to him

to find out what beauty was. And so, he covered her

in a blanket of carnations. Every woman he painted

had daisies sewn into their curls. What exactly does

a kiss do to a girl? It makes her face fold over,

and her toes turn like scallops in the grass.

MARGINALIA

Dear R.,

Two years ago, a flood. My country cried, and bodies of water separated us. Do you remember that painting? A storm-gift, you said. It stands by my wall, reminding me of how little the world is. And how large, still.

What I would give to learn how to swim, just to be beside you.

Yours,

T.

ABOUT ERICA MIRIAM FABRI

Erica Miriam Fabri is the author of  Dialect of a Skirt  (Hanging Loose Press, 2009). She teaches at Pace University, the School of Visual Arts, Baruch College, and Hunter College of the City University of New York. ( Source )

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ENDNOTES

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ON THIS DAY

On This Day

Long Poem of Loneliness by Garous Abdolmalekian

2025

The Blood of the Fish by Erica Miriam Fabri

2011

The Hurricane by William Carlos Williams

2011

Sorrows of the Elderly by Leonard Cohen

2005