The Sacred Heart by Dali (1929)

Salvador Dali
came into perfect view
flirting with you
but painting me.

walking toward a Spanish horizon
approaching the southern sea
he found a vast stash 

of cash
and his model sailboat.

he stopped suddenly
and asked politely for his winter coat
but it turned out to be too small

or maybe he had recently grown too tall?

he cruised around the Barcelona block
where he found a melting alarm clock
and a bleeding red eye.

it didn't particularly appeal to him,

so i
rescued him from the intense cold.

he was growing sensitive and acting old!

he began shouting to a nearby friend
playing with perspective
and tickling time 

which he would twist and bend
into a happy birthday cake!

well, for Heaven's sake
some things are not what they appear to be:
he kept painting me

because i was not averse to reciting verse
or running from a disappearing leaf.

his social scene began like a moving film
of pleasurable mischief;

1931 records of New Orleans jazz
is what he has

playing often.

there seemed no time to spare!

i asked him for his secret but he wouldn't share.

i subsequently made him my mistress
but somehow that didn't feel right:

he became a famous artist and i an unemployed tailor
dressed in my best uniform of a crucified sailor
escaping an abusive dad;
it wasn't my only destiny but it was all that i had.

i worked very hard and grew a faint smile;
the mustached Dali was intrigued and asked me to stay awhile,
and during the course of our future cruises,
i noticed he had blasphemous wins but occasional losses
while playing spades.

but with a talent like The Sacred Heart

his printmaking had a decent chance to start.

our lives kept intruding

then finally pulled us apart
when he used India ink to spit on his mother
whom he often truly adored.

i tried to curry favor with my brother
as we sat together on a comfortable perch;

Dali ascended from his bench and attacked the church!

he never called me again even when i heard times seemed good.
our story ended with a rough outline as it ultimately should

have.