THE THING ITSELF

Now I am going

to rape you,

you joked;

after a pleasure

wrung

from me.

With playful roughness

you dragged my body

to meet yours;

on your face

the look of

mock

lust

you think

all real women

like

As all “real” women

really

like rape.

Lying

barely breathing

beneath

your heaving

heaviness

I fancied I saw

my great-great-grandmother’s

small hands

encircle

your pale neck.

There was no

pornography

in her world

from which to learn

to relish the pain.

(She was the thing

itself.)

Oh, you who seemed

the best of them,

my own sad

Wasichu;

in what gibberish

was our freedom

engraved on

our chains.