by Fliss
She is playing Debussy as marked in his note,
with a solemn and slow élégance;
it resounds in her clothing, her fashionable coat,
through this sombre and chic courtship dance.
It should be like a portrait, Debussy had said –
an old portrait, a Louvre display;
she is subtle in colours, her lips barely red
and her skin tone a soft gold-and-grey.
And her lover keeps painting, perhaps with a smile,
maybe more, as the sarabande swells,
and the chords are progressing; she sits with such style,
as she saunters through all parallels.
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Finalist in The Ekphrastic Review's 'The Sound of Music' contest, inspired by Romaine Brooks, Renata Borgatti au piano