Beautiful Naked Women

Beautiful naked women turn up all over, 
in California they hide behind redwoods, 
in Paris they picnic on the grass. 
My doctor sends me a postcard of a plump nude
seated on Turkish pillows, smoking a cigarette; 
Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins pose behind her 
in their medals and space suits; 
it’s someone’s idea of a luncheon on the moon, 
and my doctor wrote, “Come get your new prescription!”
But pills never told me that Botticelli’s Venus 
holds her hand to her breast to frame her face, 
not because her nails are anything special. 

In medieval tapestries virgins more beautiful 
than any Venus lure unicorns 
with purple heads and black-tipped horns. 
If someone stays pure it’s because 
of a desire to hoard beauty. But that won’t explain
those beautiful nudes caught without pain 
or illness. Discarded Barbie dolls 
turn up years later missing one leg 
and all their clothes. If you’re ugly 
and you need to cry in public, close 
your eyes and no one will see you, others 
return to their various destinies; 
if destiny blessed you with a fine figure 
then your fate is to be sure 
that your fine body carries 
your fine head erect.