BODYBUILDER'S CONTEST
From scalp to sole, all muscles in slow motion.
The ocean of his torso drips with lotion.
The king of all is he who preens and wrestles
with sinews twisted into monstrous pretzels.
Onstage, he grapples with a grizzly bear
the deadlier for not really being there.
Three unseen panthers are in turn laid low,
each with one smoothly choreographed blow.
He grunts while showing his poses and paces.
His back alone has twenty different faces.
The mammouth fist he raises as he wins
is tribute to the force of vitamins.
Wislawa Szymborska - View with a grain of sand
translated by Stanislaw Baranczac and Clare Cavanagh, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1995
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