Though it is August, he closes the window
to the small studio and hangs
his Aunt Sylvia's tablecloth across the glass.
Obediently, her clothes pool on the floor
like quicksilver at her feet. Reaching up,
she steps onto the cool radiator.
The sun presses in around her skin
as she holds her back so tightly, for so long,
that it begins to quiver like a pony's.
Behind the camera, he focuses on her
arched back, the sweat on the arc of her belly.
He stops above the knees and at the shoulders
until only her torso fills the frame-
the muscular legs striving forward, the crested hip.
He holds the frame until he sees those legs
wrapped behind his back
and her dry hands turning his face
toward the light. He does not breathe
until he can see her tilt her head
toward the hollow of his neck
and can smell her hair like cedar and turpentine.
—Salita Bryant
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919 Palladium Print, Plate 172 by Alfred Stieglitz
