After Helmut Newton’s Bergström Over Paris, 1976
“C’mon, give me Narcissus,” the photographer yells at her male model.
She’s some powerhouse: Helmut Newton resurrected—and female…
only she’s not the type to jet a model boy to Paris, but she sure does
know how to make him feel special as they slum it in her Brooklyn loft,
complete with round, vibrating bed and mirrors to fit a funhouse.
“Just tongue your reflection,” she snaps at him, hoping he’ll focus
on that hand mirror….and not her. “Go into it…disappear. I need
beautiful male youth—hedonist. Look high. Go into are eee em.
Shut your eyes and pout if you have to.” By the way, he’s still not sure
if this is a “Dante 5th Circle” photo shoot or a date.
He just stares at his reflection and she opens the curtains: their floor
overlooking the majestically gritty below. And she’s not sure if it’s
the mirrors or the reflections as he falls into a waking sleep, mouth open—
pouting, when she realizes the only way he’ll pull off hedonist is if
she joins him. He’s still holding the mirror
and she lets her lips take over his,
both of them within the mirror’s reflection, entering another plane,
falling into each other. Clever boy.
Dorothy Chan is currently working towards her MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) at Arizona State University. She is the poetry editor of ASU’s national/international literary magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review. In 2012, she graduated from Cornell University, with a cum laude degree in English with a minor in History of Art. Chan’s work has been in Cha and The Writing Disorder. Her honours include a 2012 Pushcart Prize nomination for her poem “Ikebukuro Train Rides” featured in The Writing Disorder, along with the 2011 Corson-Browning Award for Poetry (Cornell English Department) and the 2011 and 2012 Robert Chasen Memorial Prize (Cornell English Department).