A Victorian Vignette

My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Wordle #110

With her flushed neck and face,

She is a damask rose

Entwined by tendrils of waist-length hair.

She gasps, moonstruck at the care

And flawless delicacy of the vignette,

The frontispiece of a book she hasn’t read yet:

Poetry that will melt her with metaphors,

Set alight a brightly burning torch,

Let loose a landslide of emotions,

With its minced words and promises of devotion

From a gentleman she meets twice a week,

Who makes her stays and corsets creak.

Forbidden love makes her reach into her pocket

Where she keeps a sachet and locket,

Smelling salts and laudanum to calm her,

Keep at bay her womanly hysteria.

 

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Image found on Pinterest