ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 4
THE DIVER
the tomb lid sketch a naked man his body arched
to curve against the arc his fall accomplishes
they say it is an image of an old belief
life is one long fall death a gravity
the wise make beautiful yielding as if willing
here the body's weight is image of soul's fate
and life an action only partly willed an arc
that anchors in a swell of wine-dark mystery
was he who lay beneath the slab as beautiful
as that diver or was he simply rich enough
to be depicted so? I hope they paid him well
the one who painted it I mean for we who stare
upon it now can give him nothing but our late
appreciation useless as it is to him