Poetry

In my first serious foray into reading poetry, I picked up a book I'd acquired from my brother's bookshelf. Nissim Ezekiel's Collected Poems. This poem has moved me (don't intend to infringe copyright by posting it here)...

Motives
Nissim Ezekiel

It's easy to remember
your body in its nakedness.
I dwell on it
as on a landscape
or a beloved painting.
Not the total form only
but the details interest me.
My motives are sexual,
aesthetic and friendly
in that order, adding up
to bed with you.
Your skin is white
but black or grey
would do just as well.
The eyes are large,
so are the breasts--
does size matter?
I don't think so.

Your thighs are full and round,
thin and flat I'd love them too.
There go my aesthetics.
In making love
certain things
for which I have a taste
you do not quite accept,
you dress again
rather hurriedly,
you do not speak,
you look away,
you are somewhat quickly over.
Never mind. I adjust myself.
So much for my sexual motives.
I stay with you, close to you,
so perhaps the friendly motive
absorbs the other two.