Her Lips Are Copper Wire

whisper of yellow globes
gleaming on lamp-posts that sway
like bootleg licker drinkers in the fog

and let your breath be moist against me
like bright beads on yellow globes

telephone the power-house
that the main wires are insulate

(her words play softly up and down
dewy corridors of billboards)

then with your tongue remove the tape
and press your lips to mine
till they are incandescent

Jean Toomer
1923

Study for Raphael and the Fornarina, ca. 1814
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Denise Levertov

Found photo
Dated May 19, 1933

Study of a Model, 1934
Henri Matisse

Le Chignon, ca. 1865-70
Eva Gonzalès

I.G. (Isa Genzken), 1993
Gerhard Richter

Woman Standing in Front of a Mirror, 1841
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

A Game of Patience, 1937
Meredith Frampton

Mrs. Thomas B. Sherman, 1931
Joe Jones

Three Women in Bonnets on Bench, New York City, ca. 1928-30
Walker Evans

Amour - Nos âmes en des gestes lents, 1898
Maurice Denis

Portrait of Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, 1843
Franz Xaver Winterhalter