Giotto Jones feared growing old
with all his paintings still unsold.
Eventually, he said he'd pose
for evening class without his clothes.
The money helped him buy more paints
for portraits of obscure saints
but he neglected to get food
with dollars garnered in the nude
He met his end, despite good pay,
yet when they took his corpse away
they found – a last act of defiance? –
the skeleton was left to science.
He'd written with his dying breath
I will life model after death.