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Saturday 4 June 2011

Porn King

I'd known him first at school
seen his portfolio
assembled from -
or largely so -
the contents of the art room bin.
Salvaging their rejects
had won him a distinction.

But not content with
with such redemptive work, each week
he'd set art homework for himself.
Monday was his Judgement day.
He'd bring it in for our critiques:
pencil drawings, photographs;
his girl friend draped
impossibly -
and nude, of course -
on rocks or fallen trees
wash basins, baths,
inverted chairs,
a mangle and a boiler.

Though in the real world
not the form of art most coveted,
his pencil drawings
outranked the rest in popularity.
One went for a Meccano set.

A porn king in the making, I suppose.
Even that far back.
But art school's life class
was the catalyst -
though not as you might think.

A coffee break,
relaxing in the corridor,
gossipping and sparring verbally
the students mill around
The model
having donned a robe
comes out to telephone.
The instrument is out of order.
At first she hesitates
then slips out through the main doors
to the public box
not ten yards down the street.

She's back before the
session bell, but not alone,
her former equanimity
destroyed: a great dane,
head and fore-parts thrust
beneath her robe, its rump
and tail still visible, is savouring
a close encounter with
the very part of her anatomy
the pose had most concealed.
Two burly students rescue her
and lead it back into the street.

"There's money, mate in this!" he says.

When I next heard of him, he had dropped out;
had two failed businesses chalked up;
was on his third and fourth,
two private night clubs: "Changelings"
and "The Zoo"; both doing well -
as was he. "By being 'private'
clubs avoid the law",
it was explained to me.
It was closed down.
The Health Authorities, I heard.
Unsavoury activities -
or something - in the kitchen.
I've often wondered what they were...

10 comments:

Mary said...

Very vivid poem, Dave! Doesn't leave much to the imagination. Some people have no shame.

earlybird said...

Good story!

Isabel Doyle said...

disturbing

Corinna said...

i laughed!

Jenny Woolf said...

Like it. Mind you having been to art school myself I never saw a model, male or female, who would have been given the time of day in a porn mag. I think on the whole this was probably a good thing.

Windsmoke. said...

Not into porn myself to sleazy and dangerous :-).

Hannah Stephenson said...

What a story---I'm totally interested in where this came from!

Kittie Howard said...

Yes, disturbing...

Carl said...

There were all kinds in art school. It seemed to be where people serious about art went as well as some folks who had no idea what they wanted yet and a minor criminal element. Very interesting story.

Dave King said...

Mary
Some bits don't leave much, I agree. Others do. The rest is true enough.

earlybird
Welcome and much thanks.

Isabel
Agreed.

Corinna
An improvement on the students: most of them sniggered!

Jenny
Very true, and the good lady inquestion - who, b y the way, was in great distress, would never have made it to a porn mag. But my hero/antihero would have said, I think, that he had been inspired by the incident.

Windsmoke
And too boring.

Hannah
Pull up a chair! "He" was an actual person known to me, and I have drawn him as truthfully as I could. The "liberated" art works actually come from the later, art school period, and not from schooldays. The incident with the dog is also factual and did occur at art school. In fact, though, it had nothing to do with the story. I substituted it for the actual incident, which was far more distressing than the one used here. Maybe I should stress again that the model had no connection with any form of porn - so far as I know - and was greatly distressed by the incident.

Kittie
Agreed

Carl
Yes, when I entered art school there were far more students than could ever have made their living from art - though to the best of my recollection they all intended to. Whilst I was there, in fact, the government decided to slash the pass rate for the fin al exams, which caused a lot of negative attitudes and behaviour, as you might imagine.