The Ghost First Lady
Katrin Talbot
Canvas photograph with paper sculpture attached
$50
Catch a carriage
Catch a cold
Let pneumonia steal you for
a January dance
What made th’ assembly shine?
What made the ball sae fine?
Now, Little Rebel Wife gone
Gone, the braid of mother,
rich contralto,
future First Lady
Before they lost you,
you, your father to the sea, a hero’s death
your mother, buried here alone in France,
Chester now married to the Party
your heart still in the South,
thoughts of separation,
but death took care of that,
signed the papers, shooed away Scandal
In the White House, you were simply a portrait,
flowers placed daily beneath a gilded frame
Every night he gazed out, his commissioned
stained glass in St John’s,
placed to glow for nightly homage to you, to
Nell
…I lov’d so well
Still in my heart
shall dwell
Artist Statement
Nell Arthur died before she was able to become first lady and has been referred to as the ghost first lady. I was fascinated by her sad story and her gorgeous tucked-in braids in early images. The final words in the poem come from Robin Adair, an Irish song Chester Arthur mentioned in a love letter to Nell, wishing he could hear her sing it again. She was a leading singer in NYC’s Mendelssohn Glee club, so the braid is made of Mendelssohn manuscripts. I wanted to have her appear faintly behind the poem.
About the Artist
Australian-born Katrin Talbot’s Attached: Poetry of Suffix is forthcoming from dancing girl press and her other collections include The Blind Lifeguard and Freeze-Dried Love, both from Finishing Line Press, The Little Red Poem and noun’d, verb, both from dancing girl press, and St. Cecilia’s Daze, from Parallel Press. She has recently been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes in Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She was voted Madison Magazine’s Best of 2015 Spoken Word Artist/Poet. Ms. Talbot is also a violist and photographer and her coffee table book, Schubert’s Winterreise-A Winter Journey in Poetry, Image, and Song is published by the University of Wisconsin Press.