Erika Dusen Tamindzija
Girl Before
A Mirror
Pablo Picasso’s abstract depiction of a girl examining herself in a mirror
How well Picasso’s style lends itself to the subject:
the girl, blooming in the bright colors and bold curves of womanhood,
naked before the mirror clutched in her tender hands.
With cheeks flushed and lips drawn in a tight line,
she examines her reflection: distorted and dark,
two uneven breasts, the exaggerated slope of hip,
splintered, half-moon face shadowed with sorrow.
Could Picasso have understood
the pain of a girl and a mirror?
Did he reject the unnatural ideal of beauty,
that pinched waist, the backbone biting through skin?
Were his abstract shapes an attempt
to make the pieces of her shattered esteem visible
like stained glass on her body?
Or might that mirror, her trusted enemy,
just as easily have been a guitar?