For Jennifer Josephy <br /> <br />On cold days <br />it is easy to be reasonable, <br />to button the mouth against kisses, <br />dust the breasts <br />with talcum powder <br />& forget <br />the red pulp meat <br />of the heart. <br /> <br />On those days <br />it beats <br />like a digital clock- <br />not a beat at all <br />but a steady whirring <br />chilly as green neon, <br />luminous as numerals in the dark, <br />cool as electricity. <br /> <br />& I think: <br />I can live without it all- <br />love with its blood pump, <br />sex with its messy hungers, <br />men with their peacock strutting, <br />their silly sexual baggage, <br />their wet tongues in my ear <br />& their words like little sugar suckers <br />with sour centers. <br /> <br />On such days <br />I am zipped in my body suit, <br />I am wearing seven league red suede boots, <br />I am marching over the cobblestones <br />as if they were the heads of men, <br /> <br />& I am happy <br />as a seven-year-old virgin <br />holding Daddy's hand. <br /> <br />Don't touch. <br />Don't try to tempt me with your ripe persimmons. <br />Don't threaten me with your volcano. <br />The sky is clearer when I'm not in heat, <br />& the poems <br />are colder.<br /><br />Erica Jong<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/becoming-a-nun/
