Three Lost Technicolor Seconds

A Shakespearean Sonnet to Louise Brooks (1906-1985)

Image of torn sidewall courtesy Smithsonian Open Access.

Androgynous Kansas, taut earth stretching

toward pomegranate sky; grace goes the girl

from fields to stage; dust-bowl far fetching,

gossamer-laced sprite in summer-down swirl.

Seductive soil births dreams, twirling dance,

gamine ventriloquist-self without chords;

cool-draped wrists, softest flight, red-curtain chance,

winking gem, twister soul’s unspoken words.

Flapper stars falling, reckless nights hold her,

bare-midriff fields, fade takes the glimmer,

lost-cardigan world, soft goes the shoulder;

time, the sultry smile seizes dimmer.

American Venus, draped in velvet,

the world’s Pandora, girl in black helmet.

Three Lost Technicolor Seconds first appeared in “The Stars and Moon in the Evening Sky Anthology,” published by Southern Arizona Press (2022).

Three Lost Technicolor Seconds Copyright © 2022 by Donna Kathryn Kelly