Sweet Corinna, A Confession

"in no way autobiographical"

So shall I always hold

your endless

indictment?

The accusation of a false eye

forever scanning the unfamiliar orchard

de la pomme non polie--

the flaxen daisy at the bus stop?

Should I smile across the counter at

the harried child, break stride for

the relentless runner to pass on by,

you say you sense a secret

conversation taking place, a betrayal

of our communal combination.

If I praise some random stranger's dress,

the red coat of a season's new fashion,

you make it seem like I've taken myself

a mistress, made an amendment to

the seventh article of the constitution.

But here, dear sweet Corinna, how

should I confess the crime of your own

sister's roving eye, inching fingertips

pressed into a thigh? How to tell

without opening the door to your green-eyed cat?

What pleasure would be derived

denying the strafe of mingy claws

scratching an itch?

When I looked at Cypassis I saw what

hunger can uncoil. The hot crust of hell,

the fertile valley between thought and

the naked feel of lust consumed

by actual conjugation of conflicting tenses.

How can what 's fine for Kings be foul for me?

Should I have denied myself, argued against

what small pleasures a man could scrap

from the buttered scones of a sister's pantry?

Desire, dear Corinna, is a red-eyed bat,

an acute want of the first knowledge

that swept us from Olympus on high.

And being mere mortal Corinna, far less

so than those noble scions of far fabled realms,

I partook of Cypassis' offered bounty,

and rode the south wind's down to join

cursed Tantalus. For pleasure, I became

a man well and good out of mind.

Ken e Bujold

Author's Note

Started out as a modernized update of Ovid's "Duplicity" and ended as a riff on what a 20th-century man might say in Augustine times. In no way autobiographical, simply an intellectual exercise

Reviews

[Brad Dehler]

I appreciate this windy path of intellect, including the references to Cypassis, Olympas etc. "A man well and good out of mind", good ending as well. Thought provoking, I'll re-read this again. I enjoy the journey

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the visit and review Brad