After Alice Neel’s painting ‘Psychiatrist’s Wife (Elsie Rubin)’, 1957
The psychiatrist’s wife
has a dress the colour
of that bottle of claret
you shouldn’t have drunk
last night. Has gold,
a pearl, a ruby ring
that resembles a sweet
that seems to be suggesting
you take, eat, but her hair
swept up in a directional
peak, is that telling you
to get lost? You would
swear her right hand
is carefully considering
what you have to say
but her left hand hidden
beneath the snow white
circular table, why
that could be up to
all manner of things.
Image by kevygee