Sighting of the Bard’s Dark Woman / 7 By Gerald George

Sighting of the Bard’s Dark Woman / 7

Her prayers, sops to hope, must surely fail.
She tries, but she needs more than metaphor,
to free poor Eros, batter past the door
of this grotesquely decorated jail.
Jealousy festers in dark corners here.
A bitter mirror and angry camera serve
in witness of a shattered diseased nerve
that snapped when prigs discovered her affair.
Whoever now spreads out the dark veneer
that masks the dread of love must love its task,
threatening everyone whom she might ask
so that she finds out only what to fear.
Light if you will the lantern of surmise,
but snuffed-out love could not be otherwise.

Gerald George has published two books of Poetry: Figments and Imitations of Indonesia. His work also has appeared in numerous periodicals including the New England Poetry Review, Potomac Review, Saranac Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Visions International, and in four anthologies. His verse play, Bailey’s Mistake, was performed in Maine’s 2008 One-Act Play Festival, and he formerly served on the editorial board of the literary journal Off the Coast. He lives in Belfast, Maine.