The emperor says, I want my subjects to believe that I am as poor as they are; can’t even afford a cloak! Then they will pardon me for taking their own cloaks from them, for leaving them penniless, for leaving them naked, just as I am as I walk serenely among them this day, pretending ermine cloaks.
Soon I will be back in my palace, its robes and pillows, its heated seraglio where nakedness arises not from poverty but from desire….
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Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink).
Memorable Fancies 
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