Anita

Anita shed your tears
For as long as you deem
For every moment you feel
Anita shed your tears.

You have lived and loved
More than one when times did not
Allow a scandal nor a woman
To be free to be besotted

With anything she wills.

You have lost a man
Strength of a woman
You have lost a child
Mother’s defeat.

Your crystal azure eyes
Transparent, I see right through
Your soul, plunge into the torturous
Waves of your tired blood, defending

A religion unable to explain
Your pain, looking for a foothold
To quell your delirium and bring
You back on Earth.

I feel your horrifying emptiness
And wonder what keeps you going
At eighty-one. Until you tell me
You felt older then than you feel now.

[Featured painting: Les Amoureux, detail, Emile Friant, 1888]