Self-Portrait as Frida Kahlo’s Paintbrush

after Hilary King
italicized line from The Diary of Frida Kahlo

Those times she used me to paint her corset,

the most damaging to me—the rough plaster

like anger to my bristles. When she kept me

under her pillow I twitched as she dreamed

black hair silk girl wind

Her favorite color for a time Soviet red.

She gripped me tight, each daub on the canvas a pinprick,

such was her precision of pain. Times I felt her

pulse. And when she dipped me into that black

paint for her brow, I carried each thick minute

it took for her to travel the nights—unable to toss

or turn, the darkness a long distance to dawn. 

CAROL BERG

Carol Berg’s poems have appeared in Crab Creek Review (Poetry Finalist 2017), DMQ Review, Spillway, Redactions, Radar Poetry, and Up the Staircase Quarterly. She was a recipient of a Finalist Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.