Luc-Olivier Merson, French
Within Seconds of Assuming the Upward-Facing Dog Pose, Kyle Realized He Had Badly Misjudged the Audience For His Naked Yoga Demonstration, 1869
Oil on canvas
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No wonder they're upset, he's doing "cobra" pose.
Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
/// When The Soldier of Marathon cried:
“We’re VICTORIOUS!”— right then he died.
Against Persia they’d fought
and the good news he brought,
but he just couldn’t take it in stride.
/// After previous long distance trials,
he had just now run twenty-six miles.
He brought Athens this news
(without tunic or shoes).
Though they’d won, note that nobody smiles.
/// And “Pheidipides” might be the name
of this man who earned posthumous fame.
He is now glorified,
but the crowd’s horrified.
Would it kill him to dress ere he came?
/// With his last bit of stamina gone,
(no reserves on which he might have drawn),
he collapsed in the street
at the three archons feet,
having run non-stop from Marathon.
/// They’re aghast, not because he is bare.
(Nude in public was commonplace there.)
No… the blazing Greek sun
and his marathon run
made him stink like a hard-ridden mare.
/// Yet why rush? News they’re victors could wait.
No harm done if he’d gotten there late.
But if Persia had won
they might all need to run
and need time to escape their cruel fate.
/// The old fellow in brown’s barely coping.
For the runner to move, he is hoping.
He would give him a hand
to roll over and stand,
but he’s busy his two daughters groping.