By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 23 October 1999

Lesson #22

    with a straight face
      and no sense
        of irony
     you asked me
    if I'd always
      been horny
   or if it
       was just you
the Southern belle in me
    came out
    to play
 when I drawled
     Well, when you taste somethin' good
                you want more of it
   to you
  sex was always
    an issue
    a discussion topic
    a specimen to examine
    under a microscope
    one more thing
    to label

  Oh, Sweetie!
  I'm sorry you were raised
  by gooberish parents
  who put you in Catholic school
  and served you milk with every meal
      before I met you I felt
  sorry for myself
     because I was the reason
  my daddy married my mommy
     when they were teenagers
 and my daddy whipped me with
     his leather belt
  for seven years before leaving us
       for his Cajun bombshell
   before you I thought it was tragic
    that I was raised in a trailer house
    and a government owned apartment
     until my mom got rescued by a prince
     who whisked us off to suburbia

   but now
   in retrospect
   I think maybe
   I have an advantage
   over you
   I do believe
   my scars and boo boos
   have served me well
   in 25 years you have learned
       safety...directions
         and the basic
          courtesies
 whereas in 26 years
    I have learned
  that human beings are complex
    and cannot be counted on
[we aren't calculators, after all]
 and biology belongs in the lab
 and intimacy belongs in the bedroom
      or kitchen
      or shower
      or in a sleeping bag
      in the grass
      behind
      the high school