riff
Jose Jones
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2000
- Posts
- 10,348
I wouldn't attempt to defend my spotty morals, or whitewash
My flaws with aggressive lies.
If it is any help, I confess. Admission of guilt. Then why not
Go the whole hog, indict
My faults myself? I hate what I am, yet (try as I may) can't
Not be the thing that revolts me. It's hell
Being stuck with what you can't kick. I lack all firmness
And strength to control my moods, get whirled away
Like a skiff in a current. There's no one type of beauty
That arouses my longing: if I am always in love
Blame my wide-ranging interests. Shyness and modesty spark me
Off every time- a demurely lowered face
And I am hooked. But it's just the same if she is pertly forward:
Sophistication promises well in bed.
A primly old-fashioned appearance, then? I always suspect that's
Mere camouflage for unacknowledged desire.
A bluestocking turns me on with her intellectual powers,
A featherbrain ditto just by being naive.
Then there's the girl who tells me Callimachus is a bungler
Compared to me- I always go for my fans-
Or the critical termagant who slates both poem and author:
How I long to be laid by her as well!
One's got a slinky walk: that gets me. Another's uptight-
She can be softened out with a little sex.
A fine operatic voice, for me, is a standing temptation
To smother the singer with kisses in mid-song.
Guitar-lessons help. Watch those fingers- the chords, the glissandos!
How fail to fall in love with such clever hands?
Then think of the floor-show dancer, arms weaving in rhythm,
Doing undulant bumps and grinds:
Never mind about me (I'm just omnisusceptible), make pure Hippolytus watch her act
And even he'd go priapic.
You're tall, like the heroines of legend,
Lie the full length of the bed
But petite girls, too, are attractive. I'm sold on both sizes-
Long and short alike are equally to my taste.
The fashionable I enjoy at their face-value, the unsmart
For all that they could be, ala mode.
I'm crazy for girls who are fair-haired and pale-complexioned-
But brunettes make marvellous lovers too:
The sight of dark tresses against a snow-white neck reminds me
That Leda was famed for her black curls,
While a flaxen poll calls up thoughts of Aurora-
My sex-life runs the entire
Mythological gamut. My tastes are equally all-embracing:
Young girls have the looks- but when it comes to technique
Give me an older woman. In short, there's a vast cross-section
Of desirable beauties in Rome- and I want them all !
Ovid
The Amores, Book II, 4
My flaws with aggressive lies.
If it is any help, I confess. Admission of guilt. Then why not
Go the whole hog, indict
My faults myself? I hate what I am, yet (try as I may) can't
Not be the thing that revolts me. It's hell
Being stuck with what you can't kick. I lack all firmness
And strength to control my moods, get whirled away
Like a skiff in a current. There's no one type of beauty
That arouses my longing: if I am always in love
Blame my wide-ranging interests. Shyness and modesty spark me
Off every time- a demurely lowered face
And I am hooked. But it's just the same if she is pertly forward:
Sophistication promises well in bed.
A primly old-fashioned appearance, then? I always suspect that's
Mere camouflage for unacknowledged desire.
A bluestocking turns me on with her intellectual powers,
A featherbrain ditto just by being naive.
Then there's the girl who tells me Callimachus is a bungler
Compared to me- I always go for my fans-
Or the critical termagant who slates both poem and author:
How I long to be laid by her as well!
One's got a slinky walk: that gets me. Another's uptight-
She can be softened out with a little sex.
A fine operatic voice, for me, is a standing temptation
To smother the singer with kisses in mid-song.
Guitar-lessons help. Watch those fingers- the chords, the glissandos!
How fail to fall in love with such clever hands?
Then think of the floor-show dancer, arms weaving in rhythm,
Doing undulant bumps and grinds:
Never mind about me (I'm just omnisusceptible), make pure Hippolytus watch her act
And even he'd go priapic.
You're tall, like the heroines of legend,
Lie the full length of the bed
But petite girls, too, are attractive. I'm sold on both sizes-
Long and short alike are equally to my taste.
The fashionable I enjoy at their face-value, the unsmart
For all that they could be, ala mode.
I'm crazy for girls who are fair-haired and pale-complexioned-
But brunettes make marvellous lovers too:
The sight of dark tresses against a snow-white neck reminds me
That Leda was famed for her black curls,
While a flaxen poll calls up thoughts of Aurora-
My sex-life runs the entire
Mythological gamut. My tastes are equally all-embracing:
Young girls have the looks- but when it comes to technique
Give me an older woman. In short, there's a vast cross-section
Of desirable beauties in Rome- and I want them all !
Ovid
The Amores, Book II, 4
