An abbreviated reprise...

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For Branwell

I perch aslant a table.
Trees like blank columns
survey me. The Brontë
sisters mingle between.
The wind sounds through the
trees, a constant source of
music. Something gives,
groans, squeaks. A bird
squeals. There's an illumined
red tree, in a pretty dress
of red rustling leaves.
The trunks of tall trees
align, her suitors.
They ask her to dance and
she stands apart, considering.
Dry green grasses fill in the
background. The trunks rise
out of the earth, straight to
the sky, the one closest - the one yearning
most - leaning. The table is aslant.

September 26, 2010

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Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848), The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Charlotte Brontë), c. 1834, oil on canvas, 35 1/2 in. x 29 3/8 in. (902 mm x 746 mm), National Portrait Gallery, London (more information here)

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