All Older Statues Want to Come Alive
All older statues want to come alive,
Those Greek and Roman ones, and Christian, too.
Their skeletons and veins and muscles strive
To break through marble skin. They want their blue
Eyes once again to see the world of living flesh.
They want to sweat in love and hate, and force
Me to address their honor and refresh
Commitment to their dogmas and their coarse
And ancient ways of thinking. They want me
To give them even more, to carry them
Around inside me. They want me to free
Them to possess me and to marry them,
Submit myself as good wives should. They frown
And say, “Don’t put our marble burden down.”