Her Last Submissive by Mark

              Her last submissive

(A BDSM re-imagining of Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’)

That’s my last submissive painted on the wall,
Looking as if he were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; the craftswoman’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there he stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at him? I said
“the craftswoman” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Madam, ’twas not
His Mistress’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into his submissive cheek; perhaps
The craftswoman chanced to say, “His cuff laps
Over his little wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along his throat.” Such stuff
Was courtesy, he thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. He had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; he liked whate’er
He looked on, and his looks went everywhere.
Madam, ’twas all one! My whip across his breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some girlish fool
Broke in the orchard for him, the white mule
He rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from him alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. He thanked women—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if he ranked
My gift of a collar in my name
With any woman’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech—which I have not—to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”—and if he let
Himself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
His wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—
E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh, Madam, he smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed him; but which woman passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. And so there he stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet below
The other Mistresses. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, a statue thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!