Baudelaire, after dinner, a dinner he ate from a chipped plate in his lap, legs crossed and a corner of the sheet laid over his thighs as if it were a napkin, and he did wipe his fingers on it. After dinner, a plate now licked almost clean that held a thin, impossibly tender slice of roast beef, creamy little potatoes and some bread. Just enough to whet the appetite for more, more being—a vanilla candy in the shape of a sugar cube.
Of Course the Rumpled Bedsheets, Stained and Scented by a Lover's Cheap Cologne
Vievee Francis
Vievee Francis is the author of The Shared World, which is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press; Forest Primeval, winner of the 2017 Kingsley Tufts Award; Horse in the Dark, winner of the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize; and Blue-Tail Fly. She is the recipient of the 2021 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.