To a Nose - Francisco de Quevedo

There was a man
              stuck
                  to a nose,
it was
     a superlalive
                 nose.
a scribe-nose.
a nose/executioner.
the sword
of a very
              swordy sword fish.

It was a sun
            dial very
                    badly calibrated
an alchemist’s
            beaker lost
                     in thought.
an elephant lying
face-up.
a more nosliy nosed
Ovid Naso.

It was a galley's
battering ram,
a pyramid
from Egypt,
the twelve
tribes of Noses.

lt was an infinite
nosenosenose
so much nose,
no fiendish,
on Anna’s face
it would have been
a crime.

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Francisco de Quevedo (1580 - 1645) Spain
Translated by Brandon Holmquest