Nude Modeling Day # 1

On Canal Street
In Chinatown
Seven minutes to 1
On time
Climb three flights of stairs
First floor a wonton shop
Second floor a Mah-Jong parlor
The clack of tiles
Third floor a massage parlor
A faint aroma of tobacco
One more set of steps to the drawing studio___
Seven older artists before easels
Sitting in folding chairs
Fluorescent lights overhead
I say hello
No hello back
They are here to draw
I am here to be naked
Three hours
$75 cash___
Strip in a corner
A green robe
Ralph Lauren
Twelve years old
I older
72___
Stand on the platform
The wood clean to my feet
Robe off from my shoulders
I now officially a nude model
Timer on
Twenty minutes pose
Five minute break
Three hours
Sit in a folding chair
Take the pose
Not Rodin's THE THINKER
$25 an hour
Legs apart
Hands on my knees
Eyes straight ahead
I see no one___
They see my body
Wonder how they see me
Doesn't matter
I am only a naked body
Lines, curves, shadows
I look at none of them
Eyes ahead
To the brick wall across Canal Street___
Strange to be the object of no desire.
Thirty years past my prime
Skin hangs off my bones
Muscles shadows of ruin
A long scar across my abdomen___
No one talks
Pencils scratch on paper
Electric heaters moan
I am naked
Not cold___
No phone in my hand
No music
No talking
My mind runs rampant
Seeking to land somewhere
I pick prime numbers
1,3,5, 7 ad 1001
1001 is divisible by 7 and more
It is not a prime
I did the math in my head___
Change focus
The Sexual Revolution.
So long ago
So forgotten by the followers of the Nailed God
I sit naked
Twenty minutes pose
Five minute break
My pose
Legs apart
Hands on my knees
Naked
Exposed
Dream of the Sexual Revolution
1964 to Now
Michelangelo's David
I am bigger___
More reminescences
1967
Finding Steven Hammer's THE ITCH
The stroke book had all the answers
Atop Nahanton Hill
Glossy sex magazines in the Combat Zone
The smell of Pine Sol
XXX double-bills in Times Square
Sticky floors
Libbie in the hallway of the Ritz Hotel
Alice crying God in a swimming pool
Beer little Beer on Soi Six
Elena under the Brooklyn Bridge
Candida at the Piscine Deligny
Sharon everywhere
Ro
I was her angel under candle light
She got me this job
Nude modeling
Three hours
$75 cash
I look down
Not a rise
A flaccid penis
Just like Michelangelo's David__
Twenty minute pose
Five minute break
Furious strokes from one artist
They are all older than thirty
Two women
I turn off my wicked thoughts
Resuming the pose
Legs apart
Hands on my knees
Eyes straight ahead
I fall on Tinoretto's drawings
A revelation
At the Morgan Library
The bare bones of paintings
All starts with pencil and paper
Light shadows form lines
Filling in the space
This is not Magic, only Art ___
Once again my gaze on the brick wall
Across Canal Street
The bricks yellow orange___
Two more sessions to go
Legs apart
Hands on my knees
Eyes straight ahead
Twenty minutes pose
Five minute break
The Adonis theater
On Eighth Avenue north of ShowWorld
Naked, but for a jock strap.
A little stiffness
The Sexual Revolution
Is not dead
For in me
It is alive
Simmering in our veins
Awaiting the awakening___
Last session
Twenty minutes pose
Five minute break
Legs apart
Hands on my knees
Eyes straight ahead
My mind blank
No thoughts
No erection
Across the street
The bricks yellow tan
Only four artists left
One leaves
Rolls up his drawing
Color pencils
Good work
Looks nothing like me
I am only a naked body
My mind blank
No erection___
Maybe next time
I'll take Viagra
Viva le Sexual Revolution___