my brother says he’d never
do an old woman
and young women with old men
are gross but i don’t care
because i’m just modeling
for Lucian Freud
who’s damn good looking
for a guy in his eighties
hair thick and combed back
sophisticated gray over
a patrician face and strong body
it’s cool he’s freud’s grandson
who talks to me about poses
while he paints visions of nudity
i feel myself becoming
part of history and am pleased
he keeps bringing me back
to study and revise
but fear he may just keep painting
and decide next time he pauses
to dash over and rip
the brush from his hand
and pull him down
to the studio floor
where I learn why so many
beautiful young women
wiggled there
Editorial note: Lucian Freud fathered at least a dozen children. He died in July 2011 at age eighty-eight. His 1995 painting “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” sold for more than thirty-three million dollars in 2008.
