One less gorgeous

(for Linda Evangelista)

A fable for you, my dear, or one

without apples

If a beautiful or apt May verse

on eyes

(for all the eye-gorgers)

or on lips

(for lip-gorgers, too)

were enough,

then you aren't near enough now,

are you?

Yes, lips and the eyes,

& unmentionables

like a thin edge of mouth,

chin spiny-finned

with age, and the brow: the stuff

of versicles

or lighted mirrors. Cheeks have

slipped their shores,

looking like two little cute seas

of crawfish & whorls

On the neck's

a lousy nebulae of pearls

that a decade more will turn

into moles

(May the eyes drop sheer to cherry

toes to give you

less pain!)

The hair's a sparkling minefield,

and thinning

even more regrettably. Lids let go

like so many

souls lost in nirvana

Only the waifish form of a waist,

red with caress, is left

Really, the harm

of one less gorgeous in the world,\

my dear?

(2010)