In the Venusberg (J. Collier, 1901)

For moment, you were Atlas:

holding the world above you,

but stretch futher, with thinner arms

you gripped

For a moment, you were Atlas,

holding up with sky, arms stretched

but really, Venus, the salient aspect

was your nudity and the globes of

your luminous breasts all that

mattered in the world. Even

kneeling and begging for release

I was still transfixed by the plump roundness

For a moment, you were Atlas.

Your arms stretched up but

you were more delicate, more

feminine and rather than see

For a moment you were Atlas,

crumpling under the weight of

all of the entire world

For a moment, you were Atlas,

hunched by carrying what you were

destined to, and for a moment after that

you

In the bedroom you were Venus:

arms stretched upward, breasts

as perfect globes and wanting of

nothing but continued company,

nothing but continued forgetting and

forgiveness of the world outside.

And so you locked the door and so

you walked back over to me and

so you ran your hand across my

stomach and so I felt whatever concern

melt away and the world was replaced

by the bright spot in your eye.

But, Atlas, you could not stop

tenting the sky forever, could

not stay unbent by the weight of the world

could not forget that outside that room

waited more that needed tending,

more that needed attention and

the small, tinny click of the button lock

could not hold it out forever.

--RFRY, 09 Jun. 06

This is the raw material for In the Venusberg.