Emerald Tyson-Adams

After Derrick Guild’s “Label Infanta Margarita, after Velázquez and del Mazo” (2025)

From what I have
                                   been told                            
				                           the trompe-l'oeil
tags are earrings. 
 
                                             Imagine
 
                                                          that I am 

                                             ||  A        ||  bird  || 
                                             || Inside ||  this  || 
                                             ||  cage    ||   tag   || 
                                            ||   you’re ||    it     || 
                                              ||      alliance        ||
 
Vibration geometry 
of slick
                              dark warm oil:
the bloodline 
                                                                          I continue
 
born into married-belonging.

	                       Paper strings 
	       holding
your ownership                     
                                                 tags tight.
 
Spanish Blue-blooded 
transactions
from Patriarch
				
F r a g m e n t a t i o n.

                                             || Expensive ||  
                                             || loneliness ||
                                             || is || caged ||
 
                              Entirely                                        real 

               an upcoming marriage
                                                                          that airbrushed
version of herself
			                     diplomatic.       She isn’t

all I’ve known 
                                        disproportionate daughter.

	     Curiosity 

	     soft braided fingers
 
privilege of cherished distance.


Chastity silk
	               frail
	                      daughter 
	                                       of 
			                            disunion 
	                                                          blood.
 
                If my husband—beyond:

Alliance 
of Rigidity
stands, heirs 
eye’s line
-age:
 
		               Father be
-longing to life

measured 
in transaction:                 tokens 

	        of malodorous loneliness.