In An Old Book

Forgotten between the leaves of an old book— almost a hundred years old— I found an unsigned watercolor. It must have been the work of a powerful artist. Its title: "Representation of Love." "...love of extreme sensualists" would have been more to the point. Because it became clear as you looked at the work (it was easy to see what the artist had in mind) that the young man in the painting was not designated for those who love in ways that are more or less healthy, inside the bounds of what is clearly permissible— with his deep chestnut eyes, the rare beauty of his face, the beauty of anomalous charm, with those ideal lips that bring sensual delight to the body loved, those ideal limbs shaped for beds that common morality calls shameless.