“Body Of A Man” (An original response poem to Pablo Neruda’s “Body Of A Woman”)

“Body of a Man” 

Body of a man
Chiseled chest, 
strong arms
Strength of a thousand armies
Smooth olive skin
Voice of rumbling reason
Logic, bypasses, 
Emotion, felt.

Body of a man, 
power in angular lines, 
fists and fury.

You thrust into me, 
you treat me as your sheath.
You are the single handed sword thrusting deep into what’s beneath.

But what is beneath? 
Beneath my pale skin, 
my firm breasts, 
my rosy cheeks, 
your smouldering gaze?

 What is beneath?
And as you thrust, you charge on, tunnelling into the deep abyss that is me. 
It hurts, 
     It hurts like hell but you won’t stop just as the brothers before you never stopped, crackling with intensity 
    you charge on and I begin to realise you never will. 
You insatiable, sword plunging being!

foolish girl, I hear myself say,
Foolish girl, I hear the haunting chant, the medley to your fire,
Foolish girl, shut up and bear it, you must bear it, 
you must bare it. 

But I can bear it no more, this naked torture of 
fierce scrutinisation 
of lipstick smears and mascara tears,
I can bear it no more
and in one swift agonising lift I shift & 
rise — 



Howling in the pain of sisters-past 
in the muffled screams of a trillion stars,
I rise. 

And I cut you up, you — 
body of a man 

I dismember those chiseled arms and I break that violent glee from 
your face 
and I cut and cut & cut 
until all that is left is your handsome scrunched up face, 
messy hair, 
sweat & tears; 
Mine?
Yours?


I am not yours, 
& you are not mine 
but momentarily, 
let me savour this liberating moment as the body of a man flowers before me
let me for once, 
watch and watch and watch...
             And set you in my little vase 
                                      and watch the sun
                                                                   set in your eyes.