My heart beat heavy
for your fair Adonis curls
your downy chest and arms
in youthful strength
The poetry in your soul
once so sweet a muse.
Subdued by life too severe
your beard darkened in ambition
your touch hardened in rancor
In magazine dreams
the sun swells to rupture.
Half a minute is enough
between possibilities.
In the tender skin of summer.
a perennial of flowers
edge the bed where we dream.
Dee Shapiro is a painter and writer living in New York and Connecticut. Her poetry has been published in Chiron Review, Small Pond Magazine, BlueLine, Black Bear, Aught, Adirondack Review, Confrontations and
elsewhere.
Her essays have appeared in The Bark, Heresies magazine and Frigate. She is art and contributing editor of Frigatezine.com. Her paintings are in
the collection of the S.R. Guggenheim Museum, Everson Museum, Albright Knoz Gallery, as well as other museums, corporate and private collections.