the spokesman on the grecian urn

its surface is covered with pictures of naked men
all of them are beautiful
all are well-hung, with nice pecs
one guy stands apart from the others
he's real casual relaxed on one foot
as if he's thinking
about an announcement he's soon going to make
he's
watching the movements
of those who surround him
he's quite taken with the scene
there is nothing more
beautiful than us
he seems about to say
nothing more beautiful
on this earth, on this Greece,
than us in our nakedness
let us linger here again today
and if everybody hasn't had sex
with everybody else by the morrow
we'll stay here yet another day
and then another
however long it takes
there's no hurry,
none at all
in fact i've got a feeling
there's nothing but time
ahead of us
perhaps months
maybe even an eternity

--Carl Miller Daniels (This poem was just recently published in Nerve Cowboy Selected Works 1996-2004. It first appeared in Nerve Cowboy, Number 14, Fall 2002.)