Wedding Portrait

Medford, Wisconsin 1908

Blade-straight & finely tailored 
in the forward mahogany chair, 

Peter confronts the dispassionate lens. 
Half-shadowed, Jennie won't meet 

the camera's eye in the vague 
lace-curtained light. Her pompadour 

is clenched like her hand on the table 
between them, a porcelain figurine

pursued, peers behind, graceful 
even as the fragile horse rears 

and strains as if to climb Jennie's bent knee 
beneath her black dress, its excess— 

bows and pleats, mutton sleeves, 
a high-necked, ruffled cicatrix.