Six Urban Love Songs

III.  Portrait of David As/Not As

A Refrigerator Magnet: Universal

appeal; the most beautiful stone to pull

the image from:  David.  David of the tilted head,

the hip slung into, the arm I lived to till

the underbelly of.  On my pillow, on my bed,

your body, David, undressed and dressed ...

Now who's this in plastic plastered against

the refrigerator door!  Not David!  on whom they've pressed

pants, t-shirt, shoes; now the penis can be fenced

in skivvies; heaven-on-earth, figleaf,

in sunglasses!  What they have done or think

they've done—appropriation; in short, in brief:

anyone's.  Possessed, asked, Shall I have a drink

now or later?  Your place or mine?

to toast the front—to dream the spine ...

Kate Light

From The Laws of Falling Bodies, Story Line Press, © 1997,
co-winner of the 1997 Nicholas Roerich Prize.  Reprinted by
permission of the author.