Not, exactly, green:
closer to bronze
preserved in kind brine,

something retrieved
from a Greco-Roman wreck,
patinated and oddly

muscular. We cannot
know what his fantastic
legs were like--

though evidence
suggests eight
complexly folded

scuttling works
of armament, crowned
by the foreclaws'

gesture of menace
and power. A gull's
gobbled the center,

leaving this chamber
--size of a demitasse--
open to reveal

a shocking, Giotto blue.
Though it smells
of seaweed and ruin,

this little traveling case
comes with such lavish lining!
Imagine breathing

surrounded by
the brilliant rinse
of summer's firmament.

What color is
the underside of skin?
Not so bad, to die,

if we could be opened
into this--
if the smallest chambers

of ourselves,
similarly,
revealed some sky.

green
bronze
kind brine:
 

Greco-Roman; wreck
patinated;

muscular
fantastic
 
 
 
 
 

scuttling
works of armament; crowned
foreclaws

gesture

gobbled

chamber
demitasse
 

shocking; Giotto; blue

seaweed and ruin

little traveling case
lavish lining
 
 

rinse
firmament
 
 

to die
 
 

chambers
 
 

sky