Crouching Venus Housed at the Palazzo Massimo

Once you decorated a grand villa

perhaps a centerpiece
perhaps tucked away

Now you grace a hall of statues
with your presence. Beauty
emerging from the bath.

Your picture I first saw

years ago
placed neatly online

I loved you then as I
love you now. No amount
of pixels can compare to in person.

Tears danced in my eyes

I gazed in reverence
you were now mere inches away

And I honored you. Blessed
my body with your divine
image hours after we met.

Did I bless you too?

confinement of a single room
to traveling along with me

I gaze upon you now and
sense familiarity. Your body
a mirror of my own.

Goddess of beauty

ancient standards
mark those rolls godly

I must be gentle with
myself. My body
a mirror of your divinity.