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Mooning The Haters: A Poem That Does Not Mention Curves Or Sheerness
[after Philodemus' epigram 5.123 in Anthologica Graeca]
"Some have at first for wits, then poets pass'd,
Turned critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last . . ."
---Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism
"Beauty is momentary in the mind---
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal."
---Wallace Stevens, Peter Quince At The Clavier, IV
[Odysseus at Phaeacia, loquitor]
Bring your reflected brightness, evening moon;
and shine forth into Nausikaa's window.
I shall not speak of her pear-shape,
nor of the silks in which her nakedness is covered---
for this would turn her into an object, they tell me;
and to that they might raise object---ions,
or maybe even toss rotten vegetal objects at me.
The sum of her is more than the parts of her flesh---
but I cannot uncover the thoughts of her mind,
until she "fleshes them out," so to speak, in words.
I cannot begin to enjoy the presence of her soul,
without the communication of flesh to flesh---
the only way possible in this material world.
And why did Divinity, which is spirit,
bestow upon us material flesh and blood and bone---
which, themselves consist of elements
(skeptics may not care to credit this)
elements exploded from the seething cores of stars?
Are we not intended to admire---
or even desire
to partake of---the beauty provided by our flesh?
My grandfather's friend, Solomon,
wrote of his lady's physical beauty
in striking metaphors and similes.
But I may not speak, thus, of Nausikaa;
and you, moon, cannot speak at all,
but can only watch and smile upon lovers
communicating with each other's soul,
by exploring the pleasures inherent in their bodies---
in the intimate coverts of their delectation.
You and I, moon, must maintain an orbiting silence,
lest we incite a spate of verbal violence.
Moon, I may not even speak of your effulgent beauty---
for that would be to objectify you;
perhaps Nausikaa will describe herself---
would that become, then, subjectification . . .
and is that (as future folks might say:
okay?
