(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)
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