Milos

Milos

On April 8, 1820, Yorgos Kentrotas discovered the statue now referred to as the Venus de Milo. Two separate arms, the left holding an apple, and a base were recovered but later lost.

Fingers callused by
prickly rope, plow handle,
gritty soil, Aegean salt,

he reaches in the uterine
darkness of the niche,
expecting to find only
rubble to repair a wall.

His palm cups the cool,
firm swell of a woman's breast.
He isn't aware he cries out
and, so, startles himself.
How did this body come to be here?

On hands and knees, suppliant,
he learns she is stone.
"Aφροδiτη," he says and
rests his cheek against her bosom,
one of very few to caress a goddess.

In the corner, sculpted fingers
clasp an apple that led to
ten thousand Hellenic deaths.
Elsewhere, Eris smiles
and polishes another apple.
She will toss it out in Sarajevo
in a century or so.