[Written March 3, 2007]
Understand
That women are not
Objects to be seized,
Bartered and exchanged
Like trading cards
We are not mementos
Of adolescent youth
Passed around
Like dog-eared Playboy magazines
Encrusted and gray with
Your early attempts
At becoming
A man who puffs up his chest
Beats it like a drum
Thinks he owns the world, and
Sexual tension permeates the room
(sexual: because we are divided along
biological and ideological lines),
Crackles like electricity
You anticipate the promise,
the possibility
Presumptuous as you are
(because you think we have roles
to fulfill, your teenage porn fantasy)
And you call us to approach –
Single file,
Whipping out a folder
Filled with our dossiers
(Here come the labels now):
Virgin-whore, sinner-saint,
Lesbian-straight, tight-loose,
Biblical temptation in its various guises,
Not even an acknowledgement of
our continuing struggles
at becoming
No comments:
Post a Comment