Temptress

Meditation on Her Bust
Raised a Southern gentleman, I’m obliged
somewhat to euphemize these sentiments,
oh alabaster goddess. Rudiments
and archetypes of Love coil, and are pledged,
in those ivory hills (it might be alleged
yet that I am a scoundrel), torrents
of allure grace soft lips, curving laments
from mothers lost to sons astray and hedged
all ‘round with Biblical pitfalls, and yet
we [...]

Drowned in Beauty

I Almost Drowned
Spring, and the water lilies were in bloom,
so I took my Grecian urn down pondside
to fill with water for my hyacinths
and Labradors. What a delight to find
seven maids swimming naked and brazen
in spring’s mad equinox. And yet . . . oh pale-
fleshed goddesses, how can mortal choose one
beauty’s epitome from others? I
could not! [...]

Swimmer

Swimming Choppy Seas
It was calm when first I set out to swim,
but then Aeolus let loose his howling
winds and waves rose. Swimming against currents,
strength nearly spent, I spied you chained to stone
and waiting as though sacrificed to some
Kraken or stormgod. Weeping, naked, you
called out against the sky, or some father
coward enough to forsake you. And [...]

Desert Nude

Wandering in the Wilderness . . .
It was a boyhood fantasy, coming
across a bare-breasted beauty in some
deserted place where she might rely on me
to rescue her, and her all willing
to reward my capable action with
tenderness and something undefined . . .
 
But now a man, I find myself here
in this deserted place, with this bare-
breasted young [...]

Ulysses

After Twenty Years Estranged
You wouldn’t believe, Penelope, things I’ve seen;
I barely believe myself. Such wonders in the wide,
wild world. But no beauty above your own, greater
now even than when I left, unwilling, to tear down
walls at Troy and slaughter hapless men whose
only sin was to raise a sword or spear against me.
But even after, I [...]

Wild

 
My Wild Love
Must have been the wine . . . can’t seem to recall
how I found you there, lying naked on
a spread out leopard skin, or at least
something patterned that way. Oh, and that
convenient golden sash. But mostly
I recall the haunting challenge of boredom
in bedroom eyes, at once sad and longing.
The pout of your [...]

Tanner’s Demise

Thief of Kisses
He was a fiend of hearts, was Jon Tanner;
seducer of women by wine and by song.
But one day a maiden too fair did Tanner
meet and kisses steal and away into the night
stole as though no promise lied through
puckered lips might hold him to a single
heart. But Duke Marinton’s daughter
had no will [...]

James Princeton Gar Returns

In the Cavern of the Sea Nymphs
You read about this sort of thing all the time
in myths and fairytales. But I, James Princeton
Gar, stand here to tell you, son: I seen ‘em!
Twas in the Indian Ocean, when I for the Queen
captained a ship and crew of swarthy seamen
salty as the brine and wily as any [...]

Temptation

Temptation
I never knew Eve. Never spent time in her
garden or orchard. Any Eden, for that matter.
But I loved her from the time of my first
erection, first hint of manhood. My heroine
not because she gave the fruit to Adam,
not because she was the Matriarch of Rebellion,
nor because she blamed the serpent—
Because she opened the true gate
to [...]

Moonman

 
She is Captive of the Moon
Who is this man in the moon? I owe him
grief for the grief he’s inflicted on me;
my precious Azure I lost to him. She,
in quicksilver beauty bathed as though
blushing moonlight herself, was taken
by him, made captive of the moon.
I gaze up each night to see her there,
bound in ropes that [...]