The Look Of Weltschmerz [rev.] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Drawing eyes for myself is all well and good, but
the gel eyeliner pencil is called Smudge and this is
what it does, smudges a dark sad sheen with a hint
of sleepless nights in purple sacks below my eyes

Making me look like a vampire with bad make-up
technique or an addict after a night in a heroin den,
I can see my eyes but it's not an encouraging sight,
this might the last time I try - unless someone

Assures me the look of weltschmerz is becoming,
reminding of Violetta's long-drawn-out end-scene
demise in La Traviata, even resembling Goethe's
Faust's Gretchen in prison - now I look as sombre

As the Mona Lisa without the strange half-smile
Da Vinci used to create the illusion her mouth is
moving, I have changed into the Gothic Morticia
of the Addams Family with smudged blackness

Around my eyes - guess I'd rather have no eyes
than floating around looking Gothic all the time

[12 August 2014]