Unsexy

These have been a number of the most unsexy-feeling days of my life, but there's a great thread at greatpoets for 'erotic poetry, preferably funny' so I'm going to stockpile:

2 A.M.


When I came with you that first time

on the floor of your office, the dirty carpet

under my back, the heel of one foot

propped on your shoulder, I went ahead

and screamed, full-throated, as loud

and as long as my body demanded,

because somewhere, in the back of my mind,

packed in the smallest neurons still capable

of thought, I remembered

we were in a warehouse district

and that no sentient being resided for miles.

Afterwards, when I would unclench

my hands and open my eyes, I looked up.

You were on your knees, your arms

stranded at your sides, so still -- 

the light from the crooknecked lamp

sculpting each lift and delicate twist,

the lax muscles, the smallest veins

on the backs of your hands. I saw
the ridge of each rib, the blue hollow

pulsing at your throat, all the colors

in your long blunt cut hair which hung

over your face like a raffia curtain

in some south sea island hut.

And as each bright synapse unfurled

and followed its path, I recalled

a story I'd read that explained why women

cry out when they come -- that it's

the call of the conqueror, a siren howl

of possession. So I looked again

and it felt true, your whole body

seemed defeated, owned, having taken on

the aspect of a slave in shackles, the wrists

loosely bound with invisible rope. 

And when you finally spoke you didn't

lift your head but simply moaned the word god

on an exhalation of breath -- I knew then
I must be merciful, benevolent,

impossibly kind.

Dorianne Laux



Oh Yeah...

...and Christmas is cooking season for me, so I'm cooking.

I got a smoked turkey so I didn't have to cook.

It's unopened in the fridge, because I went to sunrise, dropped an average of $0.30/lb for, you know, 20 lbs of potatoes, 10lbs of squash, 10 lbs of apples, a bunch of onions, some cabbage, and several rutabagas. I've got 4.5L of curry squash soup made, 8cups of wild rice/maple/miso/orange/garlic stuffing for the roast squash made, and the apples sitting by the slow-cooker to be made into applesauce for latkes tomorrow. Oh, and vichysoisse stuff set aside. That's the vegan portion.

Then I'm going to do a gallon or two of rutabaga/potato/cabbage/sausage mash which, like the soup, can be frozen for future meals and/or bartered. The stuffed squash is for Christmas eve potluck & turkey deep-fry. I may or may not do up another meat pasta/potato sauce for the freezer (tonight I did lamb-mushroom, which was lovely).

I'm starting to feel like it's a real Christmas. I'm hoping I'll be inspired for my own potluck on Thursday.

A friend just taunted me with a vegan, buckwheat-based cabbage-roll recipe. I WANT that.

I definitely don't feel restricted by gluten-free right now. It's effortless at this point, as are the removal of dairy and eggs.