Saturday, May 24, 2014

Poetry Sunday


I remember a joke I heard long ago about a fellow who picked up a girl at a club and took her back to his apartment. As he told his friends the story the next day, "She started taking everything off. First she took off her dress and the high-heeled shoes. And then the false eyelashes and the makeup. And then the hair extensions and the press-on fingernails and the padded bra ... and all of a sudden she just disappeared!" This poem by Andrea Cohen isn't about that sort of truth in advertising, but it's a clever look at the kind of woman most of us wish we might meet ...

Truth in Advertising
by Andrea Cohen

If we'd moved her,
she'd still have 'em,

the ad for Acme
Moving says, with a photo

of Venus de Milo.
But who, intact,

would Venus be?
Some standard-issue

ingénue. Give me
a woman who's lived

a little, who's wrapped
her arms around the ages

and come up lacking: that's
the stone that can move me.



I prefer being moved by ladies with arms, of course. But you knew that already.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

4 comments:

Mike said...

The truth about advertizing is 'the large print giveth and the small print taketh away'.

Chuck the Grumpy Cat said...

Thanks for the different way of viewing Venus.

eViL pOp TaRt said...

Nothing standard issue about Venus. But even standard issue ingénues have another side that is under the surface, they have they mystery too.

At least I hope people will discover under the surface..

Grand Crapaud said...

Botticelli's The Birth of Venus is no standard issue one, either.