04-10-2021, 08:04 AM
The Storyville Angels
I’ve pinned to my wall four portraits,
anonymous prostitutes of New Orleans circa 1912,
these are my momentary Muses,
my angels of Storyville,
though I know a prostitute’s life was squalid
murderous but not enough to be fatal.
The John’s itinerary:
Above this saloon on South Rampart
was a little room, thousands of pictures made in France
fornication in all its possible positions;
the men drank downstairs, went upstairs to look at the pictures,
then ran over to Storyville just two blocks away.
But one cannot look at Bellocq’s portraits
and see anything but angels
and one possible mermaid
who seems to be gliding across a chaise-lounge.
Like all the angels, darkness is encroaching
on her naked innocence,
disfigured plates making shadows
like a black hand from Hell grasping her hip.
Her face is expressionless amid her wave tossed hair.
We have no names for these angels
no lives, nothing to distract
just these silent minutes of anonymous light.
the mermaid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHKj4H63kVjZIC9lqoqQPO2koBfnwP1O/view?usp=sharing
I’ve pinned to my wall four portraits,
anonymous prostitutes of New Orleans circa 1912,
these are my momentary Muses,
my angels of Storyville,
though I know a prostitute’s life was squalid
murderous but not enough to be fatal.
The John’s itinerary:
Above this saloon on South Rampart
was a little room, thousands of pictures made in France
fornication in all its possible positions;
the men drank downstairs, went upstairs to look at the pictures,
then ran over to Storyville just two blocks away.
But one cannot look at Bellocq’s portraits
and see anything but angels
and one possible mermaid
who seems to be gliding across a chaise-lounge.
Like all the angels, darkness is encroaching
on her naked innocence,
disfigured plates making shadows
like a black hand from Hell grasping her hip.
Her face is expressionless amid her wave tossed hair.
We have no names for these angels
no lives, nothing to distract
just these silent minutes of anonymous light.
the mermaid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHKj4H63kVjZIC9lqoqQPO2koBfnwP1O/view?usp=sharing