MASTERPIECE #3253

/// Burning opium perfumes the air
in The Harem, but men should beware.
All who sneak in are found,
swords and sabers abound,
and they always need more eunuchs there.

/// Were they made eunuchs by their own choice?
Surely none when ‘twas done would rejoice.
They’re no longer well hung,
but if castrated young
they could sing with an angelic voice.

/// Sheik selected his wives for their beauty.
They may not be conceited or snooty.
When he comes to decide
which will sleep by his side,
they must eagerly vie for the duty.

/// A tall hookah the concubines used
for tobacco should not be confused
with how Boston folks say
one who made love for pay,
and who in the old “Combat Zone” cruised.

(“That hookah in the pahking lot is a real lookah.”)

/// A real harem few people had seen,
(that includes Juan Giménez Martín).
So he conjured a scene
that’s suggestive, but clean.
He sold “naughty” oils— nothing obscene.

/// Juan viewed no harems with his own eyes,
so it should come as no great surprise
that he painted those guys
from what he could surmise
about what harem life might comprise.

/// I don’t know if Martín was a prude,
but I haven’t seen even one nude
in his large “harem oeuvre.”
If he went to the Louvre,
would he think Grande Odalisque crude?

/// A nude model, Martín never saw,
for his home-life had one major flaw.
He can’t paint like Gérôme,
‘cause he works in the home
of his rich, prudish mother-in-law.