Your Sunday Poem

This sly poem is from Jack Gilbert's, "The Great Fires, poems 1982-1992" Alfred A. Knopf, .Y 2004 This is a lovely collection.  Do yourself a favor, and get a copy. Poets need our support.  They're an endangered species.

Theoretical Lives

All that remains from the work of Skopas
are the feet.  Sometimes not even that.
Sometimes only irregularities on the plinth
that may indicate how the figure stood.
Using the feet, or shadows of feet,
and the exact diagrams of German professors,
learned men argue about what the arms
were doing and how good the sculpture was.
As we do with our lives, guessing whether
the woman was truly happy when it rained
and if her father was really the ambassador.
Whether she was passionate or just wanted to please.