Figure D31 RETROGRADE

Murmurs the wind as lightly as a dove,

We enter a high chamber, well endowed

With all the soft accoutrements of love,

That looks out on an opalescent cloud.

It hides a tortured land beneath its shroud:

A barren hell, rotating retroflex.

VENUS GENETRIX, beautiful and proud,

See science thy mythology perplex

And make thine Evening Star a slander on thy sex.