arc angel

idealism was unavoidable,
a perfectionist through and through,
seeking effervescent spume with precision

connoisseurs have never quite lost track
of him, once you've seen his conquests,
his best one's are so obviously gorgeous and
beguiling that you wonder why they aren't
all over the place as obscene post cards

few other figures, icons, idols,
ever have had their mix of powerful emotions,
wild eccentricity and convincing reality,
as this arc angel does

…kissing…strip…touch…butterfly…..
a thick frothy substance…cream…crying out,
open up the vault,
release the teeming swarm
of malevolent celestial immortelles,
skyward and beyond

it may be the perfect picture,
its floating, dreamily, wistfully mutilated torsos,
tied down with a single strap of rubber,
so worshipers below can take it in from any spot

and yet that also means that
there's no stable order to hang on to,
no single take-home message
you can pull out of its turmoil

churches, now have similar images on there ceilings,
probably without knowing that they owe them to
an atrociously wicked, cruel, ill-tempered creature