Playing with princesses, coloring pages

Inked in a magazine drawn from the ages,

Muscle and modishness meet the ideal.

Marionettes in contempt of a meal

Hang — without strings — by the strength of their gazes.

Bent in your hands, their submission amazes.

Thus they become the butt ending of envy.

Leaf upon leaf, neo-classical frenzy

Saturates, contemplates, settles, bemuses –

Solving suspiciously as it confuses.

Emeralds, peppermint-green paper forests

Accent these scenes — the lean portraits of florists.

Marionette Vodianova concedes

Russian Orthodox custom in rosary beads.

How should one value Veruschka’s expression

Shuttered in this closed photography session?

Powdered divinity candy and cushions

Cover the spreads of mid-winter editions,

Marshmallow white; for their headdress, sewn roses

Over demure or obstetrical poses.

Stunned between futures, the past and the present,

Which would you wager they find the most pleasant,

Statues descending a studio ladder?

Narrative needs little more, to forge matter.