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The White Dress by Natalie Léger, An Ekphrastic Poetic Review
2 min readAug 2, 2021
An apology.
Observing is not enough,
Nor is not doing anything.
Both seem ominous against the worry
And contradict each other.
Why would a man harm a woman?
She screams,
Yet, in the foreground her body is already broken.
She lies in a dream,
In a clearing.
A man plunging a knife,
Pulling her entrails.
She is both lying and running?
The murderer ceaselessly represents a mother,
Who holds her hands seeking forgiveness.
The family never stopped identifying with the tapestry of death.
As a “family heirloom,” the body flees
Ordinary unhappiness.
Humiliation is what women face.
Men make them submissive.
Domesticate them.
But, women want babies.
And men only want women.
Men are dissatisfied with themselves.
Melancholic.
