David Thornbrugh
 
 

 

THE VENUS OF WILLENDORF

I know you Venus of Willendorf

Neolithic fertility goddess

footless fat girl

I have seen you under glass

in Vienna city of sausages

flashing your vertical smile

like a traffic light for sperm

stop go stop go

all or nothing

no in between

for the Stone Age

I have seen your outsized

overhanging massive breasts

laid on your pressed out belly

like loaves of warm bread

no one knows now

why you were carved

or what your purpose

but I like to think

Barbie is your kinswoman

exaggerated and blankly sexual

as flower petals exposed

to our bee-busy physical needs

beloved of preteen girls because you are

engraved in their DNA strands

from thousands of years of worship

jammed into hearth ash or

cupped in the hand

to give the mind a sign

of what the body is

where our need comes from

   

Copyright © 2002 David Thornbrugh.  All Rights Reserved.

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