Orion Girl No 5 - Betelgeuse (unframed)

Original artwork, acrylic on high-quality paper, 62x43cm, signed on the back of the artwork

Hi, I am Betelgeuse, one of the brightest and most powerful stars in the Orion constellation, and in Lena Snow’s Orion Girls series. My name comes from a red supergiant, a star so immense it will one day collapse in a magnificent supernova. Lena imagined me not just as a cosmic body, but as a woman who has burned brightly, given warmth, and yet knows the cost of her own fire.

I am accompanied by a poem that speaks of waiting, longing, love, and loss. They tell the story of a woman who gave her light freely, who was once someone’s fascination, someone’s muse, someone’s “amusement.” But like the star I am named after, my energy is not infinite. When the giving becomes too much, I collapse inward, only to gather my strength for an even greater burst.

An amusement
An amusement I was
I gave you my youth
My kittenish joy
An excitement I was
Beguiling it was for you
Exotic it was for you
Such an arousing experience
Giving you parts of me
That you can drain yourself in
That you can wash away your filth
That you clean your dirty soul with
An amusement I was
Like the bright light
That touches your window
During sunrise
A fiery soul I was
That lit your grey mind
An enlightenment I was
That you were blessed by
That penetrated your mendacity
That interrupted your ignorance
An amusement I was
That you took advantage of
A distraction
From your ephemeral body
Your deluded soul
A goddess in a rotten garden
That could thrive again
Foul flowers
That were fertilized
With soft sagacity
An amusement I was
Foolish on your island
You are doomed to drown again
In absence of wonder
of joy
ripped off
all your amusement

by Lena Snow