Thomas

Robert Mapplethorpe
“Thomas” (1986)

Thomas
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“garishly lighted
it has lost its
bronzed patina”
—Richard Howard
“The Mapplethorpe Effect”
Paper Trail
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arching in darkness—
tangential to white arc
the dinge frontal nude

garishly lighted—
losing its exquisite
bronze patina

genitals treated—
as the body’s limp
disgraced member

troubled references—
to classical canons
of whitey wholeness
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mapplethorpe’s thomas—
leans upward, reaches
grasping at the light

his hands cropped—
his ascension depends
on his organ of erection

his strong legs—
stretching down from
double socle thighs

mapplethorpe's models
reservoirs of headlong
plunging downwards