Unión libre

[Verses from “L'Union libre”, a poem by André Breton on a reproduction of a photograph by Man Ray, c.1930]

My wife with hair of burning splinters
With thoughts of summer lightning
With hour-glass waist
My wife with the waist of an otter between the tiger’s teeth
My wife with mouth a cockade and cluster of stars of greatest splendor
With teeth the prints of a white mouse on white earth
And a tongue of stroked amber and glass