marble mattress
The upholstery is everything
that one could pay for. Above all
it is revealing — of his cheek,
his neck, his breast. His other thing.
The Grecians, as the Cardinal
will tell you, were less rigid in
their definitions. Every tall
and pale unshaven man was called
a Gaul. Desire was no sin
but a compliment paid by the gods
to those whose services pleased them,
and to their relatives. For him
to not admire this well wrought
embodiment of pleasant youth
asleep and confident, to not
so flatter beauty, would be wrong.
Would not, if I may tell the truth,
pay near so well as has this large
stone cushion which (it is best viewed
at a distance) has become a new
attraction in itself. There are
no sculptures that requite one’s touch.
But some, like mine, like him, are carved
deceivingly: though cold and hard
beneath the human hand and much
too still to be supposed alive,
they look more real than God. Near such
one feels that one is being watched
by sleeping marble lidded eyes,
whatever other men might think,
that if awoken in the night
would see us in a better light.