Kitchens of Distinction Follow

Who dares walk her cheetahs on the dark canals of Venice?
Diamond leashes glitter, servant flames splutter
Emaciated spectre with kohl tattooed eyes
Albino birds painted shades of blackened violet

Luisa leash me up like a leopard, to your heart
Black though it be, let’s toast your effigy
Dress you in silver mail fit for the Queens
They cannot touch you now, they cannot do you harm

You are the shadow, that pale light
That draws us fluttering to your
Extravagance

We stare at the rubies that shine in our hearts
They’re all you could wish for, they’re all I could want
Pink peacocks howling as we waltz through the night
They screech of crazed parties, canopies of fright

Luisa in Paris, Luisa by the lake
Sitting still in veils, painted by the greats
Even electricity bows down to her
Until it catches flame, and all the money escapes

You remain a shadow, that pale light
That draws us flickering to your
Extravagance

Debt-ridden in London, she’s dressed in dead birds
Abandoned by her poet, denounced by the world
But once a creature exotic, she cannot be forgotten
So bury her naked, but don’t bury her nameless

Wrap her in panther skin, her Pekinese beside
Shakespearean elegy, Shakespearean lines
In and out of fashion, in death no less intense
She cannot wither now, she cannot fade from sight

She is but shadow, that feint light
That draws us shivering to her
Extravagance