FEMine

FEMine

phantom child, unearthly white
fallen amid worldly cries 
grievous composition bound by [dis]ease
inevitable departure
famine of 1890

predictable fault in judgement —
the arrival of maternal instinct

the shape of a woman
appearing to relieve
plants instead, a kiss of death seed 

* Ekphrastic poem in response to Homeless (1890) by Thomas Benjamin Kennington

The painting speaks of destitution and impoverishment amongst women and children in 1890s London. It depicts a widow supporting a young boy’s body who is close to death. However, the poem frames the female subject as aiding the boy by relieving him of life, as she plants the ‘kiss of death', upon his forehead. This alternative reading of the painting portrays women, not as nurturing or maternal, as society deems them to be, instead playing the role by performing a mercy killing.