Phrasikleia Kore
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
It isn’t like she doesn’t know that she
Is being noticed. After all she’s put
On all her finest clothes. She makes a plea
For us to look at her. She’s put one foot
A slight bit forward and she’s placed her best
Crown headdress on her scrumptious hanging hair,
Her braided, textured hair. Her robe hides breast
Shapes, nearly, but she knows this, coy. Her stare
Is forthright, lioness-like, fixed on prey.
She dares us to confront her sterness mixed
With sexiness. The sculptor’s tools can’t stay
Doomed beauty, but pretend it might be fixed.
It isn’t. In the centuries stretched from then
Till now her nose was chipped, the truth’s amen.
~ Phillip Whidden