Ernest-Ange Duez, French
For Estelle, Black Friday Was Traditionally Followed By “Do I Really Know 5 Different People Who’d Want a Rowing Machine?” Saturday, 1891
Oil on panel
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived, if necessary), here, here, here, here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated Italian Wikipedia page has more).
/// Angèle wants to rest, and to unwind,
but her fur-trimmed dress has her confined.
She would feel more at ease
if she bent hips and knees,
but that’s not how this stiff is inclined.
/// Four blue bows keep her dress from revealing
what its long, baggy shape is concealing.
She’s all tied up in knots,
and her angle is what’s
causing Angèle to stare at the ceiling.
/// Holding onto a hot demitasse,
she can’t manage to drink it, alas.
Unless Angèle sits up,
she risks spilling the cup.
(They’re unbending, these girls from Alsace.)
/// When a strong man near where she lay passed,
he helped Angèle to stand up at last.
As he did, he explored
why she’s stiff as a board.
‘Neath her dress is a full-body cast!
/// With her husband, Angèle will not speak,
and won’t sleep with him for a full week.
She had asked him to say
how she’s looking today,
and his answer to her was oblique.
/// She’s alive, so her rigor’s not mortis.
yet her back is as stiff as a tortoise.
Has allergic reaction
to booze put her in traction?
Will it poison or merely distort us?
/// Steffie’s drinking would often involve
an aborted attempt to absolve
her from choosing to sin
while her “right mind” she’s in.
Drink would stiffen her flaccid resolve.