By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 15 February 1999

Charmed

  would you be willing to love me if you knew
   my secrets my shame my doubts
 my face without make-up my body without clothes
   here it's dark and loud and we've both been drinking
         since nine o'clock
         surrounded by friends and strangers
     the deejay is Cupid
 manipulating the mating ritual with songs
     we fuck to, more or less, in our
       GAP clothes
 (close enough to make a Baptist girl nervous)
   your eyes convey a primitive code
      I accept because I was
         born to receive
   we could leave now
 this club is like every other jungle
       I've ever known

  I know all about this here jungle
  this jungle without the vines

I know the lines
I've been with men
who had to draw it
out of me
but here I am
handing it to you on a 
silver fucking platter
    does it matter
what I do for a living?
        I'm giving you my ecstasy
                               my best self
                               my breast self
       expressing the sweetest milk
     designed for your drowning
 let the crowning begin
    tonight we are Royal Eventual Lovers
     I'm your Princess Bride
       ready to ride
  risk with you
   flaunting my green splendid soul

  trust me, darling
it's all under control
I know the troll who lives 
         under the bridge
  he'll guarantee 
that you will get laid tonight
    by a wicked pro
who does it all and then some
      for free
and it will be easy
  obscenely so
and when it's over and you're dreaming
   I'll go
leaving the scent of my shampoo
   on your pillow