how should I place my whole weight
the weight I am when glutinously
askew from the afternoon, loosened
for war’s end? How can one be at ease
seen from three angles: no benefits there
though he pays me, pays me fair …

And I say, moving about myself
awkward on the same floor –
the stitching must disturb her so
no matter what she says or does
or cannot do from where she dozes
as her heart is embroidered.

In the background needles needle.
Arabesques loop us together
me and her, the viewer and needler
and the one askew from the afternoon
each of us made to rely
on the sheltering sky of quilt.

I like to think the arabesques
flatter my breasts, my mottled
breasts near the dog’s breath.
It’s so comfy there, on the grey
bedspread and in the barracks
we make with the sentry the needler.

(Lucian Freud, Evening in the Studio, 1993)