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@ 27.055 MHz: Ad Astra; At The Beach In Lively Venice, A Poem For C-Wave[XLIX] [NSFW]
" . . . Last year was all elbows and a boy."
---J. V. Cunningham, "Arms And The Man"
[for C-Wave]
Consider the private beach at Venice,
where Tadzio and Jaschu often walked
at dusk, holding hands and pausing, often,
to exchange slow, wet kisses. They were clad
in the formal dress suits required, at that
time by polite society's rules for
dinner at the Hotel, they had left their
shoes in their room (and none of the stuffed shirts
in their families bothered to notice.
The sand was so finely pulverized that
the sheer socks that sheathed their did not
sustain even the least damage (like snags
or runs), leaving the most delightful and
coy footprints in which their toes' cleavage
was scarcely (if at all) visible. They
also enjoyed the experimental
use of a certain room, safely sheltered
from the haters' and thugs' judgmental stares;
provided to Jaschu and Tadzio
by sympathetic wait-staff, a private
place in which to "get naked" (as we say
on the c.b.), to engorge, and soon to
reach pleasurable climax with surges
of glistening sweetstuff that they released
upon or into each other. And this
leads me to think of you, gorgeous C-Wave:
I imagine you on that same shore line,
casually walking---shoeless and shirtless,
clad in distressed denim bell-bottoms and,
beneath them, the sheerest tan pantyhose.
Coerulescens
A Vision Woven from Sand and Light
My critique traces how the poem moves like a tide between memory, myth, and desire, lingering on the Venice shoreline where imagery becomes almost luminous. Its interwoven echoes of Death in Venice deepen the sense of longing and forbidden beauty, while the poem’s voice shifts from distant tableau to intimate address with a kind of whispered urgency.
Evocative setting. The Venice beach imagery—formal dress, fine sand, dusk light—creates a vivid, almost filmic backdrop that anchors the poem’s mood.
Intertextual resonance. Referencing Death in Venice through Tadzio and the setting adds emotional and symbolic weight, inviting the reader to consider themes of longing, beauty, and transgression.
Distinct narrative voice. The shift from historical vignette to direct address gives the poem a conversational, confessional tone that feels intentional and personal.
Attention to detail. Descriptions of clothing, texture, and environment show a careful eye and help build a tactile world.
The attention to texture—sand, fabric, light—creates a world that feels both tactile and dreamlike, and your reading draws out how these details shape the poem’s emotional undercurrent. In gathering these elements, the commentary reveals a piece that lives in the tension between reverence, sensuality, and the shimmer of imagined connection.
I am gratefully overwhelmed
I am gratefully overwhelmed by your critique, and the very distinguished style and tone of your words.
Januarian (in Chrismation, Januarius)