Proportionality

 

                    Proportionality

        (In flagrante delicto)

 

      Tie them up – so! –

   As Leonardo

Posed his ‘Proportionate Man’:

   That at my leisure

      I may then pleasure

My retributory plan.

 

      Strip off their clothes

   To starkly expose

Intimate attributions,

   So each one can see,

      With close clarity,

The sites of their collusions.

 

      Fasten those chains

   So their promised pains

Will not permit them relief;

   For they must repay,

      This very same day,

The debt they owe to my grief.

 

      When you’ve done all,

   Depart till I call

You to unloosen their chains;

   To what else you hear

      Just turn a deaf ear:

Punishment often brings pains!.

 

             * * * * *

 

      Now we’re alone –

   We three on our own –

Closed in this dungeon of tort,

   You’ll both feel and see

      The sharp agony

Engendered by wanton sport.

 

      You dared ignore

   The threat which I swore

Should you  give way to desire.

   Now you’ll discover

      That this thwart lover

Burns with a violent fire!.

 

      You will regret –

   But never forget,

 Once you have felt my revenge! –

   Your impudent lust

      That cuckolded  trust:

Dishonour I must avenge!.

 

      I will not shirk

   My pain-driven work

To chastise your carnal vice,

   Until you have met

      The ransom I’ve set

As immorality’s price.

 

      Nor shall I haste

   To scourge your flesh chaste;

Pity is not in my thought!.

   You’ll suffer so much,

      As devices touch,

Where you’ll wish they were not brought..

 

      The bitter whip

   Your stressed skins will rip,

And other instruments prise

   Those delicate parts

      Which led your lewd hearts

To gross infidelities.

 

      Never again

   Will freedom from pain

Lighten your lives’ misery:

   My anger shall blight

      Each day and each night:

You’ll wish you hadn’t wronged me!.

 

             * * * * *

 

      Now we’re alone –

   We three on our own –

Here in my dungeon of dole,

   Should he – or she – first

      Endure the pains nursed

In the dark depths of my soul?.

 

[Note: Although Leonardo da Vinci’s early-16^th century AD Notebooks made the ‘Proportionate Man’ image famous – it shews a naked man, spread-eagled like a star within a circle, as if tied to a frame – it was actually designed by the 1^st century AD Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio to demonstrate his Principles of Proportionality, so it is sometimes called ‘Vitruvian Man’. I used Leonardo’s name in my poem because he is far better known than Vitruvius. J.A.B]