Beauty, Like Anyone Else, With Too Much Attention, Is Choked Poem by RIC BASTASA

i like the way you put so much effort
on that sculpture: a head of a woman with braided hair
a flower between an ear,
and a certain restrained smile
as though trying to hold
what she sweetly keeps
in secret

every night you look at it and every morning
you chisel a part here and there saying,
' this is an excess
there must be a room for improvement'

on one morning you chisel out another part always looking
for a way to perfect your art
until such time that it does not look a woman at all:
it has become an indescribable creature
'derived from a native woman who has not spoken
the language of the woman that you love'

i pity the work. I abhor you
something so beautiful and so natural was finally sacrificed
in the altar of your artistic greed.

monsters arise from an overworked mind.
from too much discontent. from too much hate
for what good was there.
with too much effort, beauty, like anyone else,
with too much attention, is choked.