Frank Gaze Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

I gaze at you frankly
From within the gilded frame
Of Édouard Manet’s
Most famous painting.

I may seem shameless
Sitting there in the shade
Draped in nothing but sunshine
Daring you to mock my lack of modesty.

But imagine my surprise
When, for the first time,
I saw with my own eyes
The painting that had Paris so scandalized!

There, standing in the Salon des Refusés of 1863,
What should I see but my own face staring back at me
Perched on the much more voluptuous figure
Of Madame Suzanne Manet!

What the viewers tend to forget
Is that the model comes in and sits
And poses as she is told to
And then she goes home.

The composition comes to life
Bit by bit in fits and starts
As the painter tries to find an arresting way
To convey what he has to say in visual symbols.

To this day I have no idea
What Manet meant to express
By painting me naked and the men fully dressed
But what you remember is not my body
But they way I meet your gaze
Fearlessly.