After "The Bath" by Pierre Bonnard in the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London
The Bath
She stares straight ahead
Stretched out soaking au naturel
in a stark white tub
and trance-like state
Blind to his brush strokes
Pierre Bonnard's wife subject
Portrayed at a time
when water therapy
was treatment for tuberculosis
Or obsessive neurosis
One wonders whether she
wasn't already dead
The water having fatally failed
And the corpse prepared for viewing
with oil paint preservation
Bonnard's depiction
a conjugal composition inquest
Or whether she has
succumbed to coma
Paint-paralyzed by the parade
of people invading her privacy
The Tate Gallery
a modern municipal bathroom
Painting can be viewed:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonnard-the-bath-n04495
