Barbara Lydecker Crane

Perhaps
           Travesti by Ghasem Hajizadeh (b.1947 in Iran; 
           he fled the country after the Islamist Revolution 
           and now resides in Paris); mixed media, undated. 

I worked this piece in oil paint and scraps
of vintage photographs to craft, perhaps,
a striking woman dressed to meet a man
and step out for a night in old Tehran; 
they’ll drink and dine in a smoky cabaret
and dance close as jazz musicians play.
And after? Viewer, that’s for you to guess—
or if you are like many, to repress.

You’ll note the hands and feet in red high heels
are large. That cashmere sweater surely feels            
divine, sliding off one shoulder. The chest
beneath is model-slim. To be so dressed
can give some pleasure, and also can evade 
arrest—that is, if he is not betrayed.

Prize-winning poet Barbara Lydecker Crane’s fourth collection, You Will Remember Me, sonnets about portrait paintings in the imagined voices of artists through the centuries, was published by Able Muse Press in 2023.