Siddons.
The great actress and I sat and spoke.
Passers by, cocked their heads
and pointed their fingers
to remark at her beauty;
Delphic.
I strained to hear her
over the swaying London Plane's
As she maintained:
Back straight; eyes forward—
they must remember you
once they have forgotten you,
they have devoured you.
I joked,
But she insisted.
And just how can I stall their appetites
With flesh and bone, that I don't own?