Self-Portrait in a Convex Kettle
"I effuse my flesh in eddies..."
—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, LII
As youthful Parmigianino did it, the right hand
is bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer, swerving and
protecting what it advertises. John Ashbury too,
verbose, diffuse, brought his distorted head into purview.
Here at the stove, I'm boiling water, making some green tea;
and what I notice in the kettle is a view of me--
not that becoming—hips that spread across the kitchen—wide--
gigantic pecs exploding—huge glute lobes on the back side--
and overall, the picture of a man—from where I stand--
who 's flabby, floppy, blabby, blobby, hardly great or grand.
"I effuse my flesh in eddies..."
—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, LII
As youthful Parmigianino did it, the right hand
is bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer, swerving and
protecting what it advertises. John Ashbury too,
verbose, diffuse, brought his distorted head into purview.
Here at the stove, I'm boiling water, making some green tea;
and what I notice in the kettle is a view of me--
not that becoming—hips that spread across the kitchen—wide--
gigantic pecs exploding—huge glute lobes on the back side--
and overall, the picture of a man—from where I stand--
who 's flabby, floppy, blabby, blobby, hardly great or grand.
