Ode on a Grecian Vacation Challenge THIRD PLACE WINNER: “Ode to My Vitruvian Man” By Melissa McKinstry
It’s time to congratulate the Third Place Winner of Frontier Poetry’s Ode on a Grecian Vacation Challenge: Melissa McKinstry. Our editorial team selected McKinstry’s ‘Ode to My Vitruvian Man’ for its contemporary take on the love poem.
We’ve all heard the saying, “You deserve the world.” But how can anyone know what that means if no one ever stops to describe the world to them? Melissa does that—and more. In this stunning, contemporary ode, she brings clarity where there was once ambiguity, painting a vivid picture of what her Vitruvian Man is truly worthy of.
Ode to My Vitruvian Man
in a world where you are possible
my love
nothing can go wrong for us, tell me
—from “Song” by Frank O’Hara
as a lapel pin, & both Library lions looming on their plinths. You deserve
the Flatiron Building triangulating toward Madison Square Park: surprise!
Every sexy Eames chair in Soho, the Holland Tunnel’s fluorescent tiles,
blown bodies twining each Lalique wine glass in Park Avenue windows.
New daffodils foregrounding falafel carts, habibi. Each chic local stepping
into the street before WALK, striding on long legs & heels. The plastic
bags snagging a dogwood’s blossoms. All titillation. Less the beauty, more
the eye. What’s real? What’s scale? Lex & 24th is the world’s sweet navel.
Full of earthenware lamps, faux lambskin throws, & high cheekbones,
the mezzanine of the hipster Freehand is dim & close. At the Neue Gallerie,
my orange kimono blends into the larger-than-life foiled Klimts guarded
by a roomful of knights in armor. You deserve it all. I lift your visor. Behold,
you: every ideal proportion of Vitruvian Man I could ever imagine. For real.
Melissa McKinstry
Melissa McKinstry’s poetry appears in Beloit, Rattle, Best New Poets, Adroit, Tupelo Quarterly, The Maine Review, and other journals. She’s a Pacific University MFA alum, an Adroit Djanikian Scholar, and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland. You can visit her at MelissaMcKinstry.com.
