Panurge’s Muse

A simian profile

With slits for eyes;

Dumpling lips and a potato nose:

Neither a girl nor a goat.

 

Hair like a fishtail;

No bust, more like a frying pan;

And growing from the chin—

It’s terrible, I know—a beard.

 

Choppy gestures, long feet,

Hands twisted backwards,

A voice thinner than a cobweb,

Canine teeth–some rotten.

 

Oh, darling, your laughter–

It opens gates. . .

Just stunning! An acid stench

Gushes from your mouth.

 

Eyes lost in craters in the skin,

Arched, balding eyebrows.

Dear God, after all this

We are to accept her naked?!

russian