The Ophelia Cantos by Theodora Goss

1. 
   
   
Lilies tangle in her hair: green stems Like water-snakes.
2. 
   
   A disembodied hand Floats on the surface. So much has been lost
   Already: toes, the lobe of her left ear.
   But this remains, a damp, immaculate
   Sign, like a message saved from the dark current.
3. 
   
   She wandered through the courtyard in her tattered
   Dress distributing wild violets.
   She called us whores—your son ma'am, not your husband's
   I think—and knaves—the taxes sir, your cellar
   Is stocked with sweet Moselle. We called this madness.
4. 
   
   Indicia of her innocence: to be
   A maiden floating dead among the flowers.
5. 
   
   She will become an elegant and mute
   Image: the sodden velvet coat, the sinking
   Coronet of poppies, virgin's bower,
   And eglantine. The replicable girl.
   (A blob of Chinese white becomes a hand.
   The artist puts his brush in turpentine,
   The model pulls her stockings on.)
6. 
   
   And yet, Surround by the water-lily stems,
   Her face appears an enigmatic mask:
   A drowned Medusa in her snaking hair.
   The lilies gape around her like pink mouths,
   Telling us nothing we can understand.
7. 
   
   Her eyes stare upwards: dead and not quite dead.