James Parker reads "Words Made Flesh" (mp3)

Lines upon learning that a nudist camp in Woodstock, Connecticut, is offering reduced membership rates to those younger than 30, in the same week that Sylvester Stallone pleaded guilty to bringing vials of an illegal muscle-building product into Australia:

With trembling tissue, turkey neck,
With testicles a-droop,
With hairy lobes, deflated breasts
And nipples sadly scooped

The vintage nudists roam, or stand
Like images of ruin.
Bring on the young, the tautly-hung,
The bubblesome and brewing!

Whose flesh is bright, and loves the light
And tingles to the touch
Like Sly Stallone on a growth hormone
Or maybe not so much.

Come lay your long-toothed selves aside
And into shadow slump.
We need the naked young, their zest,
Their glossy hardboiled rumps.