TWO PAINTINGS OF LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS BY FRANS FLORIS THE ELDER(1519-1570) OR HIS PUPILS

 This was a common subject

from the Renaissance through the Baroque

and beyond: Lot and his daughters,

the latter getting him drunk

so that they can sleep with him,

believing that the rest of humanity died

as Sodom and Gomorrah perished,

and that they have to carry his offspring

to save it. So science fictional;

and in these paintings, this misguided

incest for the sake of believed greater

good becomes pornography,

nowhere as revealingly as

in these two paintings.

The girl, seemingly the younger sister,

whose breast Lot graps

looks directly at the viewer.

There is nothing of the lust of the

intoxicated old man in her eyes.

In other paintings of Lot and his daughters

the voyeur is not acknowledged, drawn

into the drunken sex scene.

They are allowed to enjoy their

religiously veiled pornography without

having to accept their role in it.

Here, the sullen gaze of the girl

forces the viewer to accept

their role as part of the painting

- that it's not for the continuation

of humankind that these two girls

are seducing Lot, it's for the

sake of titillating the audience

of the painting. They are degrading

themselves so that the voyeur

can enjoy his pornography,

sanctified by the biblical theme.

30.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry

IF, THIS TOO, ENDS IN DEATH

How many deaths

on the conscience it takes

for the heart to give up?

How many deaths?

Or is it the conscience

which withered dies?

24.01.2022

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BEFORE OBLIVION'S GATE

  Even near the end,

when its whispers

susurrate

at the edge of

understanding,

we think

it's just the beginning.

24.01.2022

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28.01.2017

  You came back from the neighbour,

walked to the living room

where I had fallen asleep

watching Liverpool lose,

and you were happy of that result,

sprightly, everything normal,

and in ten hours

all would end.

24.01.2022

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IN THE WARMTH OF THE LATE EVENING OF MID-JANUARY

A black winter night,

with the sound

of falling

rain.

The crisp, cold

light of the late dawn

like a mirage

of the mind.

19.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

FEMININE CHARMS

 The coy statues of Venus,

trying and failing to hide their charms,

make a man forget that he is a mortal,

like Paris who chose fame,

and that she is a goddess

governing his fate.

19.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

THE ZADAR VENUS STATUE

  Like ravaged by some

serial killer of the modern imagination,

the torso of Venus emerges,

cut in half, the modest bosom

and the head lost

to the greedy, cruel

touch of the satyriatic time.

18.01.2022

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MEN THINK OF SEX TWICE IN AN HOUR, WOMEN ONCE A DAY

Morlocks and Eloi

men and women,

beasts and the real people

the former are feeding on.

18.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

MID-MORNING

Awash in orange-red light,

illusion of warmth,

the horizon of

landscape and time

at dawn.

18.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

IF YOU CAN'T BE THE HERO

 If you can't be the hero

of your own life,

better to be its bystander

rather than its villain.

17.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

IF ONLY I COULD HAVE REACHED THROUGH THE SCREEN TO TOUCH YOU

 To PRC 

Just seeing you show

your thighs to me

yesterday

has left such a deep

longing in me,

impaling me

with desire.

17.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

IN THE MULTIVERSE

Remember, in the multiverse

there are infinite number

of versions of you

who have it even worse...

17.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

OF REGRET

Regret is such a debased coin,

minted in endless supply,

yet - how bitter still

to fill hands with it!

17.01.2022

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PARTED

 What it matters that he

won't touch another one,

when he isn't touching

her, like he used to,

with cold fingers

running on hot skin,

aching? How

could he ever

feel the same

as in those moments,

buried so deep in

the loam of years,

and yet growing

tender and bitter

memories, ample like

the declines and swerves

of the flesh which

the yearning

hands remember?

07.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

OUR HUMAN LOT

In the end,

as in the beginning,

you are

nothing.

But then,

you are human.

06.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry 

MOTES OF DUST IN A MORTAL COSMOS

 If it's any consolation,

the existence of a giant star,

like the orange Aldebaran

or the red Betelgeuze,

is as pointless

as ours,

from dust and gas

to dust and gas

and singularity,

yet -

theirs is an existence

unburdened

by the knowledge

of it's worthlessness.

03.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry

POST-COUP DEATH TOLL IN SUDAN REACHES 56

 Apparently

recognizing Israel

turns Darfur genocidaires

into respected statesmen,

and makes the killing of

unarmed demonstrators,

dying to defend democracy,

quite justified and the proper

thing to do.

After all,

in the greater Middle East

and the near regions,

there can be only

one democracy -

or so they say,

in the 'West'.

03.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry

ON THE THIRD DAY OF THE YEAR

In the last gloom

of the day

in the mid-afternoon,

snow from clouds

to the frozen ground

of my mind.

03.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry

HETA(1998-2009) AND MUSKA(2009-2018)

Paw-prints on the

lunar dust

of my mind.

03.01.2022

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ON THE SECOND DAY OF THE YEAR

  This future was much more

enticing when I was

reading of it in

cyberpunk dystopias.

02.01.2022

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

 So far now

from the blessed years

that were the home country

from which time

has exiled me.

01.01.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry