In Lieu of the Expressionist

Poseidon, Embodied (i. statue)

...and i will carve my awe of you into marble so that it may be permanent.

with every touch of my hand on the cool stone, i will impart a memory of you,

whether old to us or yet to be felt. and the rock will flow around this likeness

of you like the water you call home/like the waves you taught me to love/

like the surf that brushed my sandy toes/like the cold touch of the pool to my skin/

like the ripples emanating from disturbed surfaces/like the tide riding upon your

heels that changed my life. if all i leave behind are these words erecting you eternally,

i will consider it my masterpiece/magnum opus/crowning achievement/tour de force.

and all who come to seek my knowledge at the foot of this sculpture of you will

know how careful my love is, how painstakingly i worked to capture all the best parts

of you, the gentle ways that i infused this marble with your infectious joy.

i transformed my adulation in the eyes of Plato, tonic love to insufferable pain.

my palms will grow calloused and my eyes heavy with exhaustion but i will have

blessed the world with a tribute to a soul i had the chance to love...