issue 25 > poetry > leavitt

         A Sapphic verse on a copy of The Rape of Proserpina by Bernini at the
         Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida

"Rape of Proserpine," the colossus's sign reads,
"Stone Variant," on the theme young girl some
God of Hell abducted became a queen. Her
Rape is looming, yet

Here, she's held aloft, as if ready to fly, with
Pluto's arms her launch. See where haughty paper
Wasps, the Hymenoptera, built their nesting
Site between her not-

Yet-queen-thighs, a fortress of humming rapture,
Stingers sharpened, ready to shield them both from
Brutal injuries and regrets, to put an
End to myths like these.






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