Monday, June 4, 2018

Jack Harvey writes


At the Whorehouse

The world's best available playgirls,
in brief, the duchesses of delight,
at present at leisure, waiting
waiting in the whorehouse,
garter-belted gum-chewers,
sitting on their asses
like bored kids in classes,
tits awry and
passing time chit-chatting,
for a price
will now be ready
for large-folio labors
on your behalf.

Is your desire the
best standard debauch
or less simple in taste,
an afternoon in an arbor
under Madame de Sévigné?
Or scholarly with
ten thousand props on stage
or in your fantasizing head,
the fully perverse.

Whatever, sweet friend,
you will pay and
you will have it.

But regard and remember
as you leave
your petite death-bed,
sated and serene,
plebeian or patrician,
you, too, on the wild-maned
horsewomen of the night
suffered and conquered
and however quaint,
straining under the reign
of looming delights
and uberous splendor,
painted faces, sloe eyes, sweaty thighs,
however dirty and discreet,
gave to life what is life
and in your own careless loveless way
advocated creation.   

Salon in the Rue Des Moulins -- Toulouse Lautrec

1 comment:

  1. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, an aristocratic orphan, married Henri, marquis de Sévigné, in 1644. She gave birth to in 1646, and her husband was killed in a duel over a mistress in 1651. Though only 24 she never remarried but devoted herself to childcare and literature. When Françoise married in 1668 her mother began a celebrated correspondence with her that lasted until her death in 1696; of the 1,120 known letters, most were destroyed because they were poorly written or dealt with private matters. However, by 1673 her letters were being copied and widely circulated, becoming among the great literary artifacts of the time. Au underground edition of 28 letters or portions came out in 1725, followed by two others the next year. Her granddaughter Pauline de Simiane then decided to officially publish the correspondence, putting out 614 letters in 1734-1737 and sanother 772 in 1754. However, many were rewritten to conform to the literary conventions of the time. However, in 1873, some manuscript copies were found in an antique shop, thus restoring about 1/2 of the documents.

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