The Answer to Isabel's Question

"If you could do a dance/striptease for anyone (famous, not famous, someone you know, someone you've never met, living dead, male, female. anyone.) who would it be?"

To which I replied:
Walt Whitman,
ee. cummings
and Hafiz.

Except... I would begin bare
standing in the forest, then
I would cover my body with their poems
beginning with places I feel them the most.

I imagine Walt would be a gentleman about it.
He would take off his hat,
press his hands together as if in prayer
and say, "Your very flesh shall be a great poem".

Edward would dash toward me
sweep me up in his arms
passionately proclaiming,
"Here is the deepest secret nobody knows".

Hafiz would clap
joyfully and with tears
shouting,
"You have not danced so badly, my dear, O my sweet crushed angel"!

(Photo by D. Pople)