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Oh, Venus, what shall I do with you?

Erika Michael Poetry

So you’re not the Anadyomene — suck it up!
Too much pudica peek-a-boo
for a surf girl born of sea-cum*
frothed from the cast-away cojones of Uranus.
Some said Botticelli — Savonarola  groupie —
kept a boy, but that’s inuendo.
Impeccably pubescent you waft on your
scallop craft — an archetypal icebox magnet,
your obligatory shyness pressed flat
against the wall— that’s what gods do!
Legs locked at the knee, I see you, untwerkable,
pearlescent dream of a horny Florentine
flogging his body bloody with thorns
for want of a dominatrix.

*secum (Latin):  with himself

About Erika Michael
Erika Michael has a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Washington and taught at Trinity University, Oregon State University, and the University of Puget Sound. Her poems have appeared in Poetica Magazine, Cascade: Journal of the Washington Poets’ Association, Drash: Northwest Mosaic, Mizmor l’David Anthology, Bracken Magazine, The Winter Anthology, The Princeton Institute For Advanced Study Letter, and elsewhere.

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