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Thrice Removed

An Ekphrastic Sonnet

By D. J. ReddallPublished about 14 hours ago 1 min read
Jean-Leon Gerome, "Working in Marble," 1890

Your boredom and urgent thirst were real, once

The cold room and precarious platform

Were as worrisome as his annoyed grunts

As he coaxed marble to ape your pale form

Through her hoop, the dancer studied your nape

As four masks laughed at his posterior

He ignored content to study the shape

To him, the inside was inferior

A painting of a sculpture of someone

Is thrice removed from throbbing, worried life

Traces of what you felt, there may be none

You could have been a stranger, or his wife

Art imitating imitation's art

Simulacrum of surface, not of heart

Ekphrastic

About the Creator

D. J. Reddall

I write because my time is limited and my imagination is not.

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Comments (2)

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  • Sean A.about 6 hours ago

    Some great final lines, definitely with Dharrsheena there. “A painting of a sculpture of someone” also has its own musicality. Well done!

  • Dharrsheena Raja Segarranabout 11 hours ago

    Art imitating imitation's art, that blew my mind!

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