Doesn’t Look like Love, But Is (Love Poem)
The place reeked of sweat
and insecurity,
there was a twisted honor
in this verbal mosh pit,
as insult upon insult
piled higher and cut deeper.
Nothing was sacred;
one’s skin eruptions
the size of one’s genitalia
the supposed sexual performance
of one’s mother,
the more stinging,
the better.
Years in the future
the women in our lives
would never understand
this humor,
this camaraderie,
this test.
“It just sounds
so mean, so negative.”
We tempered each other
in the nastiest, most vicious
remarks
because the last thing
we wanted was
to see your pal
completely devastated
the day his boss called him
a fuck up
or his girlfriend
tried to impugn his
manhood.
We were in training,
toughening each other up
for the struggle
that seemed as inevitable
as our fathers’
quiet exhaustion.
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Looks Like Love, But Isn’t (Anti-Love Poem)
Completely unbound
by desire and passion
they shamelessly explored,
unaware, unconcerned
with anything or anyone else.
The surgical perfection
in his oiled Olympian musculature
glistened,
and every inch of her skin
had been powdered,
waxed and painted
to superhuman effect.
His rigid, oversized and
camera-ready member
didn’t fail owing to
off-camera doses
of Viagra and amphetamine,
and she accepted him
into every pulsating, waiting,
pre-lubricated orifice with breathless
adoration and acquiescence.
Over and over,
with random, alternating camera angles,
anything human sounding
was drowned out by music
designed to mirror the repetition
and presumed excitement of the scene.
Long ago, the makers dispensed with
the pretense of exposition
or dialogue – it just got
fast forwarded past anyways.
Having seen what felt like
hundreds of these loops,
in retrospect,
I resent how they
hijacked my sense of who I was
and what I wanted,
because while I still had my virginity,
I let them steal my holiness,
and I wish I could get it back.
see, this is how special you are ,or how wierd, (I don't really know), but no one else on PA mentioned how empty that vessel, pornography...I actually never think about it at all, but for sure I will now (and not in a good way)
ReplyDeleteMosk, both takes are great writing. From the "boot camp" of males trying to prop each others' egos, to the failure of porn to properly introduce youth to real love... you stomped this prompt!
ReplyDeletePorn is, for me, the quick buck for a quick... the continuing follow of failure to include romance, foreplay in scenes, and ultimately, the exploitation of both women and men for their attributes given by God but used for less than Godly purposes.
Innocence will always be hiding in the back corners of your heart, don't you worry, bruddah! Ameleh
Well done! I like that you chose to write both sides of the prompt...and the title(s) themselves drew me in. And then...the finely-crafted lines of truth. Again: well done!
ReplyDelete