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Margaret D. Stetz

he said
to leave it on
as she lay naked
underneath him
a chain
of imitation silver
encircling her throat
reminded him
of a Cranach—
Cranach?
conjuring no pictures
she filed away the name
one more thing
to look for
in an Index
this tutorial
in sex
beyond the bounds of
class
to strip away
her vestiges
of being poorly
educated.

Years later
in a gallery
she found the painting
small-breasted nude
but with a necklace
and was that all
he’d seen
a body
sly and serpentine
the cliché of
a “temptress”?
No wonder
that he never
recognized
until too late
that she bore weightier chains
and held a sword
no Venus she, but Judith
not out to win a heart
resolved instead
to have her way
her souvenir
his head

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