for Louisiana Alba

because Marcel Duchamp is not nude: it is hard to imagine him descending the staircase: his sleeves rolled up to the elbows: the creases of his pant legs: making lines where shin and knee should be: only the zigzagging line: between the underworld and this one: is the same as you remember: as though Orpheus is a middle-aged man: belt cinched between his flabby shirt and pants: sans lyre: but willing to paint his way out of this corner: of hell: his brushes singing across the canvas: making the old gods cry: until one nude model following slowly behind him: to the top of the stairs: where he turns to paint her descent again