“Two Women Leaning on a Gate” Edgar Degas (1890)
Inspired by lines in...
“Twenty-One Love Poems” Adrienne Rich
The Gate
A gate is the opening of a fence.
Two Victorian women stand at the gate.
The woman in blue reaches out
and touches the other woman’s sleeve.
On her hand is a golden glove
the same color as the other woman’s
dress and there seems a flow between
the two women. Behind them a forest
appears. The woman in blue might be
thinking, “No one has imagined us.
We want to live like trees.”