KATE HORSLEY Eleonora of Toledo laughs at a pantomime
dildo
Eight months pregnant with her eighth child,
the Duchess watches the dumbshow
the burly actors dressed as the Three Graces
holding huge scissors
to the giant’s braces.
The props are by far her favourite part
the silver paper stars and painted moon,
the velvet backcloth tacked to the proscenium,
the giant’s wooden appendage
bursting out so unexpectedly,
making her laugh until the child inside
kicks in astonishment (quite soon
they’ll die of fever, though it will be rumoured
they were put to death). Meanwhile
the giant fights to get into his breeches
and the duchess laughs to feel the baby’s foot
chiding her bawdiness. She smoothes
the lily-patterned dress, soothing her womb,
noting fine gold threads nosing from black silk
like grave worms. "Eleonora of Toledo laughs at a pantomime dildo" is the 1st
Prize Winner, Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition
July 2010.
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