The Ideal Refuses
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Greeks never showed the Amazon with one
Breast chopped away in marble. Beauty’s shape
Flowed lacking flaws. Greek teachings all would shun
Deformity. At times a carved stone drape
Would hide the place where myth predicted scar
Of flesh would ruin. Raised, a warrior arm
Would hide the mutilation. Wound would mar
Perfection in viewed myth. The wound would harm
The marble strength of high perfection in
The artist’s concept. Perfect human build
Insisted thought should banish breastless sin.
If trauma showed, then beauty would be killed.
A javelin might lodge beside one breast
Unharmed, but ugliness must be suppressed.
~ Phillip Whidden