The Girl in Red

For Christina, who is frequently referred to as “The Girl in Red.” 
Autochrome by Mervyn O’Gorman circa 1913.

 Forget your silk shorts that match
your flame-red hair. Forget the haze

that softens your gaze. Banish your listlessness,
your regret that licks the air 

as the photographer adjusts the aperture. 
Christina, you’re the autochrome

pin-up girl, an Instagram sensation
even after a century; one of the first

color images. On the rocky beach, 
you study the pebbles in your palm.

One is pewter, the other is stone gray.
No one sees your face. Is it better that way?

Umber and cinnamon tones kiss 
the mountains behind you. Beside you, 

a rowboat sits, undisturbed. A miracle, 
the photographer announces—

the way these hues stick to the plate. You, too, 
feel stuck: to coldness, sadness,

to the goosebumps pricking your skin.
If only you could snatch 

the oars and row the boat
faster than the exposure…       

When the photographer orders
be still, all you can think is run. 

SHANNON K. WINSTON

Shannon K. Winston is the author of The Worry Dolls (Glass Lyre Press, forthcoming) and The Girl Who Talked to Paintings (Glass Lyre Press, 2021). Her individual poems have appeared in Bracken, Cider Press Review, the Los Angeles Review, RHINO Poetry, SWWIM Every Day, West Trestle Review, and elsewhere. Find her here: shannonkwinston.com