posing positions

the nude model’s name was Mary.

heavy-set, mid-40s I’d say.

any younger and somebody

would call an ambulance.

she was more the flavor of Rubens than Modigliani.

a good poser, though, for the less angular

art students holding charcoal sticks

ready to mark their pages in her image.

a sea shanty to define her would be

“hill and gully rider”–– because

to catch the whale the harpooners

and their oarsmen closed-in riding whaleboats

over and down the waves of the sea.

“whaleboats”..that’s the proper name given to these boats.

but one might think because of what they did,

which would be,.. chasing down the great sperms

often in high seas, sometimes resulting in the deaths

of a boatload of whalers, a more romanticized name

for these boats would be in order.

a “hill & gully” would be a good one.

a “spear-header” would be nice, too.

or a “blubber-dubber ”.––

hey! wait a minute! 

what the hell happened to Mary?