Her Body

(Can Apollo’s Torso be She?)

https://poets.org/poem/archaic-torso-apollo


Did you see her body?

Hummm Maaaan

It was fine

Those supine curves, they aimed, those pointing lines

My oh Mine

There’s something in her straining arch that’s just divine


Did you catch her move?

Swift like wine I swear

A vicious valentine

That takes them down one at a time

A perfect crest her circling breath

Feline

Me oh My Mine

There’s something in the quiver of her draw

That’s a crime

And it’s mine


Did you feel her before the blow?

It was all in her shadow

And the royal scars and lately reds

Still gaping in their recovery beds

Patience Practiced at the ready

The strong straight spine

Stretched far beyond today’s design

And deep into what years combined

And far ahead

Dancing echos and sparring rhymes

This specimen is nature’s latest experimental assignment

One tendril of her aching gray-green vine that has yet to undermine that creeping creature thing you hear now

Rising your eyes or chest like a near-forgotten vow

A call a horn an echo a bow


Do you hear your history in her soft wise jaw?

The rite that’s there that’s always been

The piercing blade

A straight shot

That anchors your bones in beating braided twine through centuries and fantasies

There is your shame and your joy

She is her arrowsmith

And you are witness

And we stand at a living shrine

And hope

Mine

Oh me the ancient beauty

Is power aligned

In here and now and you and I

Oh my The Genuine

Demands not hours or numbers but

A lifetime

Did you see Her Body?

It was Fine

It points you toward your Skyline

Brace your weapon and, open, ready, again, refine

Hers is long gone and will never be yours

Sometimes we wake and meet too late

But begin now,

Yes You,


Did you see Her Body?

It was Fine

It points you toward your Skyline

Brace your weapon and, open, ready, again, refine

Hers is long gone and will never be yours

Sometimes we wake and meet too late

But begin now,

Yes You,

Did you see it, Her Body, The Message?

It is waiting

It is

Mine