The Gospel of Gold
after Raphael Alberti
1
“Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all
he wishes to in this world,” writes Christopher Columbus,
“and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.”
2
In 16th-century France, some members of the nobility,
to avoid wrinkles and age spots, drank gold.
Diane de Poitiers drank a daily dose of a gold tonic.
Which is said to have killed her.
3
“Swallow me,” says gold. “Swallow me because you
can never possess me.”
4
Gold as the robes enfolding the lovers in Gustav Klimt’s
The Kiss. Gold as this fathomless kiss.
5
Gold as Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-carat solid gold toilet,
which he named, yes, “America.”
6
Gold as Donald Trump’s “Never Surrender” high top sneakers.
Only $399, but which are, sad to say, “SOLD OUT.”
7
Could you be allergic to gold? Gold was named
Contact Allergen of the Year in 2001 by the American
Contact Dermatitis Society.
8
The gold tiles in the Jesus Christ mosaic in Hagia Sophia,
Istanbul, will make you swear: “Never before have I beheld gold.”
9
Only Vincent Van Gogh could bear to paint four withered
sunflowers, and watch their gold flicker, sputter, then blacken.
10
Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” the first gold
record, sold 1.2 million copies by February 10, 1942.
But when Tex Beneke sings, “Boy, can you give me a shine,”
he’s not singing about gold.
11
“Goldbrick: a worthless brick that appears to be of gold.
A person who shirks assigned work.” A word I’ve heard
only my father employ.
12
Those boxes of gold dental caps and gold dentures found
by American troops in Buchenwald. What gold can make you do.
13
“10,000 dollars in gold to whoever marries the snow,”
writes Raphael Alberti.
14
“You’re a smart guy,” he told me. “So you know that Jews
have taken over the world economy. And it’s going to crash.
That’s why I’m selling gold.”
15
But it’s silver’s shyness I find more alluring than the brassiness
of gold. Silver the ring I was married with, twice.
16
Our wedding rings — they’re not silver, my wife tells me,
but white gold. Gold, I cannot escape your hold.