Pillar of Want 
by Adam Gianforcaro

after “Herm of Dionysos,” 200–100 B.C.

All the men I would
cast  in  bronze  if  I
could,  bodies rid of
everything but face
and   phallus,  room
after  room pillared
with beams  of  bulk
and brutish  hunger.
Set now  a  bench  at
the  center   of     the
gallery, a  station  to
slow  one’s    looking
and consider  deeply
the       deities         of
once-flesh  fantasies.
How funny it feels to
be  held  so  longingly
in   a   place of   stone
eyes and limbless lust,
the stone-cold cool of
copper raising a  chill
in   the     room.     But
there’s warmth    here
too:  the   heat    of    a
camera, breath behind
a hole in the wall. The
mostly  pretend  yawn
of    a   security   guard
side-eyeing  me  again

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Adam Gianforcaro is the author of the poetry collection Every Living Day (Thirty West Publishing House, 2023). His work can be found in The Offing, Poet Lore, Third Coast, Northwest Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Delaware.