Bellocq's Ophelia - Natasha Trethewey

ekphrastic character study that speculates on a couple years in the life of one of e.j. bellocq’s portrait subjects in the red light district of 1910s new orleans, at times it barely feels like poetry and more like someone’s unedited journal. splitting it into letters and diaries and dating all the entries means you can have a great time reading all the exteriority, the interiority, or free jazzing it and getting both perspectives on a given month at once. short and sweet enough to knock out in an hour if you’re wrapped up in it (and u will be!)