May #4

Note: I wrote a May 3. I published a May 3. Perhaps Blogger ate it. Onward.




What Cosmo Taught Me

Cosmo said,
Living with a man
means getting comfortable with him.
Beware!
Once he sees you clipping your toenails,
you'll become usual to him.
Keep up an air
of feminine mystique -
or lose him!
And I, the little tadpole,
eager to learn and to please,
swallowed the lesson whole
and when my life came to
the turn I am,
when it came to sleeping nights together
and spending days together,
it sped out of my mouth again
at some moment.
So I measured my life
against those
glittering, laminated scales -
the Scales of Cosmopolitans -
and found myself
perhaps a little wanting
in decorum.
Yet I knew
I was still a wonder to his eyes,
could still impress him
with a simple dress-up
and could turn him on
with a look,
whether I was sleeping in
his ratty tee or no.