NaPM April 05 2016

[Achebe]

painting: Bacchus and Ariadne, Titian


Would you deny? 

Would you rebuff the dimpled god
halfway towards you flung?
In the Aegean noon, the sea is
blue as Iznik tiles,
and blue the bright varnisher's sky,
and high your coronet hung.

Would you deny the rimpled god
in the six foot canvas strung
from the whitewashed wall of the gallery - 
crop the Sylvan revelry,
disperse the mob, empty the square?

I'll still be sitting in this chair
looking at your face endlessly –
Ariadne, my Ariadne,
blue as the crocus flowers.