Venus de Milo – A Farewell to Arms by Fern G. Z. Carr

Venus de Milo, approx. 130 B.C.

Venus de Milo – A Farewell to Arms
             with apologies to Ernest Hemingway

Goddess of love and beauty,
saucy wench –
flaunting her perky breasts,
cloth drapery sliding
down her thighs
exposing
posterior cleavage
befitting a plumber.

She tilts to her right
unable to maintain balance,
still stumbling in a state of stupor
following an ambrosia
bender
culminating in the loss
of her cherished
plinth

and both marble arms.
She is now but
a spectacle
for Louvre tourists
who gawk and point
at the vestiges
of her night
of debauchery.
           
Fern G. Z. Carr

Previously published in  Ekphrastia Gone Wild, edited by Rick Lupert.

FERN G. Z. CARR is a Director of Project Literacy, lawyer, teacher and past President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She is a Full Member of and former Poet-in-Residence for the League of Canadian Poets.  Carr composes and translates poetry in five languages while currently learning Mandarin Chinese.  A 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee, she has been published extensively world-wide from Finland to Mauritius. In addition to multiple prizes and awards, honours include being cited as a contributor to the Prakalpana Literary Movement in India; her poetry having been taught at West Virginia University and set to music by a Juno-nominated musician; an online feature in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper; and her poem, “I Am”, chosen by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate as Poem of the Month for Canada.  Carr is thrilled to have one of her poems presently orbiting the planet Mars aboard NASA’S MAVEN spacecraft. www.ferngzcarr.com.