The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 3/25/09 (language warning; NSFW; minors beware)

[BlueIris]

"For a Man Who Wrote CUNT on a Motel Bathroom Mirror"

You thought she was asleep. You were afraid
To hear what she'd call you
If you said it out loud as a parting shot at the door,
So you took the sneaky way out
And used her own lipstick against her, against the mirror
Where you felt certain she'd look no later than dawn,
But would find, instead of herself
In there again behind glass, your blunt reflection,
Your last word on the subject.

But I'm here to tell you she was wide-awake.
Behind her eyelids she followed every move
Of yours, the jingle of small change
When you finally found your pants, the smallest squeak
Of your run-down heels in the bathroom,
The soft click of the latch.

She let out the breath she'd been holding and keeping
To herself, took a quick shower, considered
The small end of your vocabulary,
And taxied home. She didn't bother
Erasing your own word, but passed it on
As a kind of tip to the maid, who wouldn't clean up
After you either, but left it to the imagination
Of another transient facing a cold morning,
Thinking of you and passing the word along.

~David Wagoner

[ThomCat]

1. Wow.

:(

There are guys who swear they aren't sexist because they are so damned proud of being straight. They love sex with women too much, supposedly, to hate women. But this poem speaks a different truth. How many guys out there just use women for sex and really don't like them? Don't even know them, and don't want to?

That's a particularly deep and ingrained type of sexism. But from the number of guys I've heard talk about their girlfriends and wives with exactly that language and attitude, it's unfortunately not rare.

This poem is powerful because it's a rare and casual situation that's a window into something common and intense.

[BlueIris]

2. Wait...there are guys out there who actually say they're not sexist simply because

they're straight (and therefore sleeping with women so therefore not consumed with hatred for women)? Thank God I've never met one of those. That bizarre non-logic makes me want to tear my hair out.