Pandora's box - a poem by Chris Zachariou

Trump: Abstract Painting by Tommervik

Two by two, the crew
board the boat to El Dorado
with a rout of rusty knights
sitting at the captain’s table.

La Fornarina - a poem by Chris Zachariou

la Fornarina - Painting by Raphael

I.

In the silence of a nearly finished day,
Margherita straddles all her years
of barbed wire fences and takes the painter
   to her bed.
At night she lies with Raffaello
—such beautiful things they do together—
it’s impossible to resist these pleasures.