Description Of "Woman With A Cup"
(Oil on canvas)
Janos Kmetty, Budapest, 1975
(To hear Shelley recite this poem, click here.)

She is alone, a glooming red shawl
spilling from her shoulders. A chill,
perhaps, transpires from the half-lit walls,
to touch her where she bides in disregard
of a cup of warmth arrested in the arc
of a sip, suspended by an unintended thought.

Had her darkling eyes shared a confidence
with the cup? Was some sign perceived,
a look, a mystic hook to nag at her repose,
afflicting her with unwilling reflection?
Was it her fine hand, delicately at work; fingers
graced not with a ring, but with a cup?

Her closed mouth speaks of recent regrets,
perhaps; of the white of a collar and cup, chaste as
a chill in a wall; of the want of a sip from a
stemmed glass, and new porcelain
in the pantry; of this night having been
the night before and will be the night
tomorrow.

(To see Kmetty's painting, click here.)