Ammunition in the Museum
The spectator husband said the woman
in the portrait should have shed
thirty pounds before baring her body
Implying that thick thighs
ample upper arms and bellies
bigger than breasts aren't becoming
Botticelli didn't agree when he
embodied her as Venus
She and other voluminous women
establishing the standard of beauty
for centuries to come
Expansive bodies that suggested
plentiful provisions when subsistence
was synonymous with sensual
While populations perished from starvation
And only the elite sated hearty appetites
and overstocked larders
Unlike today's lavish lifestyles
and Barbie doll wannabes
Where women diet until they
favor cadaverous creatures
from those former famines
And where eating illnesses infiltrate
the female gender
When a well-fed culture
converts up-to-date attitudes
into deadly weapons
