Prime Study by Victor Marrero

Early morning musings. These callow lamentations 
speak my piece. I posed for oddity. A freak creation  
left undone, buried uncut in solid rock. Still, I feel. 
I think. And I rage as I bend beneath the scourge 
of the ignoble globe my shoulders are bound to bear.

No line of defense disturbs the contradictions I cast as sacrifice 
of a master’s mold. I model a prime study in suspense, 
while nearby robust Moses frowns, fulsome muscularity flexed, 
harsh mien and all. For all his strained severity 
he is still ineffectual as leader of homeless clans.

The bare David rises in stature to peerless height in the rotunda at the key 
of this triumphal hall. His insouciant bearing is simply overbearing. 
He preens and struts up there, all bounds of decorum abandoned, 
vaunting lordly privilege. The thumbs-on-the-scale beloved, 
finished if unabashed by self-love, flaunts immodesty larger than life.

And elsewhere hallowed in some other lamentation, behold, 
our siblings in stone: the Virgin with lifeless Son. 
Awkwardly sprawled. Steeped in mourning. 
Polished for adoration of sorrow sanctified 
by the poor man’s lot. So cast for pity. So begging love.

They look on, intense, though they have all it takes and need no more. 
For them, a master scraped fingertips raw. His touch, labored in love,  
in agony, glows in their contentment. Grace beatifies the aura 
around them. Clean arcs curve gently round every line to define 
beauty by the care and symmetry creation lovingly plies. 

No random accident or knowing spite deformed the realization 
of these masterworks. No hollows depress the surfaces 
as if an errant thumb had pressed too hard on clay still moist. 
No aberrant gaps or lumps or flatness rendered where the artist, 
through mischief or neglect, pared too much or not enough.

That wholesome finish is purposely endowed, 
not affected. Rather honed by hand for them alone 
and delivered to them alone by a caring hand. All that pride 
by sight and syllable conceives articulates from within them. 
All that says in one breath: This is fine.   

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