Soft lights and chatter
spill through
the open door,
they draw me in.
I look beyond
familiar faces and glimpse
two young boys on a sofa.
their limbs intertwined –
a tangle of lurex thighs
and spangled lycra vests.
I can almost
imagine the eroticism
of Matisse’s odalisques
and patterned wall hangings.
Here though, flower stickers
placed to enliven bare walls
parody that reverie of
Moorish exoticism. Opulence.
The scene flickers between
actual and imaginary.
I think of Whitman’s phrase
We two boys clinging together,
of Hockney’s later
eponymous paintings of
Californian boys in white socks.
The two boys on the sofa untangle.
One, a neighbour, moves towards me
to place the requisite kiss
which I return in like manner.
Picture: Blue Nude by Matisse www.artfund.org