issue 27 > poetry > slavitt

Those purple iris surrounding the catafalque
represent royalty as well as death.
A princess then, or did the painter intend
to pay some compliment? Centuries later,

it isn’t a puzzle we are required to solve,
having learned enough to see the connection,
for death, itself, can choose sometimes to ennoble
if only in the broken hearts of mourners.






Also by David R. Slavitt:

Laundry