Half of Klimt’s Water Serpents II | By Moriah Bray
The painting was a reproduction, only half
of the original depicted and the colors somehow wrong
not enough green, nor yellow. And only one of the four
water serpents, the third girl with ginger hair
at the bottom of the painting, her right breast
barely in frame, her eyes watching the artist or maybe
me. She had wildflowers in her hair,
two blushing on her cheeks, spine and right
hand distorted in the water. She hung
in your dining room slitted eyes cut
toward us. I sat in a wooden chair
sipping tequila and you stood, black hair curling
past your shoulders, blue eyes
wide and asked, Do you feel the sexual tension?
I did and I asked you, Are you a fan of
Gustav Klimt? But you had never heard
of him.

About the Author:

Moriah Bray is a PhD student at Georgia State University working on a manuscript of poetry in both English and Spanish. She also serves as the poetry editor of Exhume Literary Journal. When she is not writing, you can find her in a yoga flow or petting her cats.