Matthew Brennan: “Madame Edith Brown (1874-1956), Proprietor”
MADAME EDITH BROWN (1874-1956), PROPRIETOR
206 North Second Street, Terre Haute, Ind.
Here, in the tenderloin, on Friday nights
the cabs begin unloading packs of men
just paid at plants along the riverfront.
On foot, bell hops and clerks, bucked by some beers,
stop at the curbs, red-blooded but still nervous.
I see them eye the stained-glass canopy
above my door, the gaslight glinting on
the letters I had added: MADAME BROWN.
More than my formal gardens with their fountain–
my own Versailles–this sign says who I am.
Sin City’s my metropolis, this house
my Moulin Rouge, where pleasure ever reigns.
Some nights, when evening pauses and a hush
falls on the house, I like to step outside
and listen to the river easing past the shacks
across the water, west of here. I think
of how, just seventeen, I bolted from
the farm outside of Paris, Illinois–
drawn by dreams lit up like streets in France–
to Terre Haute, where hearts round here seek love.
At first, in piles that lined the boulevard,
I drudged away my days by scrubbing stains
from underthings and, on my knees, the floors.
But then I bought a “ladies’ boarding house.”
I step inside again. The boys are staring at
the chandeliers, each one a Tiffany,
and at a gilt-framed print of Odalisque.
We serve them fifths of whisky, gin, and port,
so when the curtains part like open robes,
they have already flashed their wads of cash,
which soon will pad my purse. It’s now that lust
engulfs them as the girls in negligées,
low-cut and lacy, plop onto their laps
and start what ends in boudoirs up back stairs.
Below, behind the parlor’s scarlet drapes,
I’m savoring the wages of their sins.
Matthew Brennan has published six books of poetry, most recently Snow in New York: New and Selected Poems (Lamar University Literary Press, 2021). In addition, in 2020 Franciscan University Press brought out The Colosseum Critical Introduction to Dana Gioia. His poems and criticism have appeared in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Amsterdam Quarterly, Valley Voices, Georgia Review, New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.