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Licking Secrets Clean


by Tantra Bensko


The mannequin on the cross,

Roped and rouged,

Does not feel the same


As she thinks she does.

And our fantasies of her

Miraculously somehow wanting us

Do not fulfill, but tease,

Telling truths


To strangers in shackles

In old, cold rooms.

More perfect than we

Are, her hands,

Disengage and feel

Our secrets


And do not mind the cold.

The perfect body

Mocks our flaws

But her red lips smile

With understanding.

We have imagined


The comfort of a blind lover,

Who can't judge our looks, only feel us.


We have imagined the comfort

Of feeling our secret

Perfections in crowded rooms

Of our other judgments

About ourselves, which avert

Their eyes from our pleasure taking.


The mannequin's blind eyes,  open,  green,  serene,

Look away from the cross, her hand

Against our crotch, against

Our suffering, our agony of being

Alive and beating warm.

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