Eva Ström's poem about Narcissus from 'Utskuret ur ett större träd'

It is not the face, not the body

that are most beautiful in Caravaggio’s Narcissus

but the flexed knee, silky-smooth and perfect

shimmering like the skull of a new-born baby

the unexpected centre that will perish in the spring

Just gleaming skin stretched over a flexible joint

not a beating heart, not a brain full of dreams

a knee, nothing else

flexed one last time, before the youth
kisses the mirroring surface and is swallowed for ever by the water

To see the original poem, go to here