Confusion of Womanhood #poetry #2020aprpad

Prompt: Write a form or anti-form poem

Confusion of Womanhood

Which form should I take
to please your perverted mind –
Mistress, Wife or Whore?
Whose altar will you bow before
burn incense and flesh to appease?

Black-laced and leather-clad
red lipstick and heels –
should I deepen those scars
criss-crossed and nearly healed
or wrap this whip around your throat
’til you gasp – passed out?

Or should I Joan-Cleaver about?
house neat and penned
three course dinner and I
promised as dessert –
wine in hand, lead upstairs
to vanilla sex on ironed white sheets

or whiskey-eyed in the bar bathroom
hips ground into cold porcelain
back against a moan-steamed mirror
or face smashed into a filthy wall
as you thrust, thrust, thrust
then toss bills on the floor as you leave

These primordial needs
leave me teetering, near cliff-felled
I cannot be all three –
choose
or set me free

©2020 Lori Carlson. All rights reserved.