Shunga Poem by gershon hepner

For men who’re dirty, old and hunger
for gorgeous women or their likeness,
a gift they’ll treasure will be shunga
of lesbians making love. No dikeness
spoils images that in Japan
great artists made of women screwing
women, for a dirty man
whose getting old his favorite viewing,
except, of course, the lady who
provides for him a gift like this;
inspiring him, she’s sure to do
the sort of things that cause her bliss
no less than him. A picture may
excite him with its foreplay pleasures,
enhanced when privately they play
together, sharing shunga treasures.

For a special birthday this year, Linda bought me at the Pacific Asia Museum in San Francisco a copy of Japanese Erotic Fantasies: Sexual Images in the Edo Period, by Chris Uhlenbeck and Margarita Winkel (Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam) .

5/2/08