Manatee - revised

[BobBradshaw]

v2:
Manatee


You have just come from watching
those slim waist beauties

of the Amazon
who always smile

and flirt with their clicks
and whistles.

You look with disdain at girls
who don't have either

the slim torso
or the soft skin glow

of a pink river dolphin.
Don't insult me with advice

on how to turn
slender, beautiful.

I diet on salads,
water celery and lettuce.

Yet I will never be slim enough
for your kudos....

but why give a flip?
With my small, attractive eyes,

adrift in a world
out of your depths, pal,

I am as alluring to the big boys
of these cold springs

as Garbo once was
in yours.



v1:
Manatee


You know I don't have the curves
of a Veronica Lake,

the legs of a Betty Grable--
my torso like a cigar’s...

Still, despite your bias
and that of advertisers against big girls

I will find a lover, too.
Just because I diet on salads

of water celery and lettuce
it's absurd for you to think

I can grow slim
like Ava Gardner.

I gaze at the world
with the dark, attractive eyes

of a Marlene Dietrich,
a Claudette Colbert,

adrift in a world
out of your depths,

alluring and mysterious
to the big boys

of this cold world
as Garbo once was
in yours.

[Kenneth2816]

Love the voice. Think it a bit over dependent on famous dead movie stars. Might consider either a line or two that places the poem in that time frame or conyemporize the divas.

I wonder who the "you" is being addressed. Maybe I am missing something

[BobBradshaw]

Thanks, Ken... revised