My Muse Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

My Muse
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
I read in the March 2nd of 2020 issue of The New Yorker
That Autumn de Wilde, the female director of the recent movie, Emma,
Has said that Gerome's Pygmalion and Galatea was an inspiration to her
And she viewed the stars as her muses and made them come to life;

Ms. De Wilde also has said that Gustave Courbet's painting, Woman with a Parrot,
Which is a female nude with her wavy hair spread out
And her hand extended in welcome to a vivid green parrot is like herself
And I, your poet - Gayathri B. Seetharam, saw the painting and
Could not but be struck by the languid length of her body
For the lady, Autumn de Wilde is 6 feet 2 inches,
And saw a metaphorical aspect in the painting;

Perhaps, that is why the director showed her male muse, Johnny Flynn,
Who played Mr. Knightley, in the nude, and although there was no frontal nudity,
She did linger on his backside or Cotton's Virgil, the latter being a Victorian slang for
The unimaginative word, backside, for the man's derriere
And as a woman of imagination, I would like to know in a movie
If his front is as attractive as his behind;

Talking about male nudes, Justin Trudeau, as a younger and less responsible man
Had had his nude picture taken
But with no frontal nudity or a display of his Cotton's Virgil
And it would be interesting to find out if the country he governs
Would be as seduced by his manhood as it is by his leadership;

My paintings of PM Justin Trudeau are my muses of him
And I see him shaking hands with me in his Office
And in front of our house on a sunny day with me behind him smiling at the world
And driving by in a car with a maple leaf on it
And myself standing beside a metaphorical beaver building a bridge
And a three member gray jay family with a nest on a maple tree and there is snow around
But the golden sunshine is bestowing its patronage on the two of us.

Acknowledgements:
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence by Francis Grose