Rupert Atkinson

Melbourne Sonnets. 13. On the Block

WHIRLED in a shimmer of muslin, satin, lace,
They chatter, laugh, and smile; their radiance glows,
And from their loveliness a fragrance blows
Which deifies each mystic girlish face.
Here's more than magic 1 In every coy grimace,
A glove's half-gesture, the tilting of a nose,
There lightens something from each dainty pose.
Some startled sweetness or elusive grace.

Observe them thus in splendour — yet they walk
No less in nakedness though pads complete
Their glittering, fluttering raiment — nearer gaze
Deep through their warm, white skin ; watch how they stalk:
Stiff bones, automatons of what they eat —
Who live — and live but while their flesh decays.