Ode to Cartier

I want to be decked & set—

smoke rolling from my porte-cigarette,

plush as a leopard’s pelt,

decreed by royal warrant.

Knuckledust me—a bling

of cabochons like eggs—

a hatchery of bonbons

bulbous on every appendage.

O spangled, O sparkling—

drip me in onyx, pin me a wildcat

lumped with diamonds,

blunt club of the head

dewdropped in emerald, then clip

platinum lianas to my wrist.

Hunter, huntress—

there’s life in me yet.

Fetch my tiger lorgnette,

snap tourmaline crocodiles at my neck,

pour me into the oval yawn

of a molten gold python,

then drag me to the greenest tips

of a coral tree, let me die in peace

with the silk of a jaguar’s breath

huffing in my ear at dawn.

Sarah Holland-Batt’s most recent book is The Hazards, which won the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry.