Saturday, July 29, 2017

Kit Kelen #574 Diogenes in the tub of straw (ekphrastic)


574
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








4 comments:

  1. So timely for us having an Ekphrastic festival here in the Hunter. He is so grumpy but you got him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

  4. the 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

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.