Page 4 - After Waterhouse
P. 4
St. Eulalia
Cloaked Roman guards stand
unmoved unmoving
lances at the ready
witnesses whisper
grieve from a distance
tableaux dressed in dusty-rose garments interrupt
the somber browns of buildings of cloaks of cross.
Strands of auburn hair bleed across pavement…
Under the flow of anemic drapery
her legs swept to one side belie the ripping apart
though a fragment of rope remains tied to one wrist
she is no longer vulnerable to its relentless pulling.
Perpendicular to his cross, her pose echoes that of her Lord.
The discrete renderings of white
dull cream of masonry and pavement,
glowing gray-edged doves
luminescent snow
insist on miracle
as the dove rises from her lips
the snow falls in Spain's August sunlight,
descending upon her nakedness caressing her broken body
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St. Eulalia, 1884 by John William Waterhouse
