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Diogenes in the tub of straw
(John Williams Waterhouse, 1882)
girls tease at this grimace
and park their petals on the stairs
what drapery to his sackcloth
the one with the feathers most smug
it's all blue and cloud scud
a sun slants in the barrel
the only thing black is a slave
Diogenes had a slave once
could live without him
Diogenes became a slave
but here in Athens
scatter of onions
as if to eat raw
snows behind for his head
an artist of sorts
a coin defaced
grim zealotry
where the city's wealth
won't stick
all day
waiting for a king
to cast his shade
all night
with his lamp
and never finding
an honest man
So timely for us having an Ekphrastic festival here in the Hunter. He is so grumpy but you got him.
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ReplyDeletethe ekphrastic
poem he's writing
is trying to describe what
it really means to write about
a painting of some old bloke
writing an old poem
with Friday on his mind
sitting in a barrel
like a fish
and he doesn't
think he's thinking much
he finds honest women everywhere