Caught in Traffic

Paint a dash of red upon cherry lips
While you fasten the waist upon your hips;
Soaring buttress no cathedral has seen
As does become your frame, this lean cousine!
Slip into this slimming gown; do refrain
From eating tonight in town, lest the pain
Become apparent in this tight made dress
That forces your body to so confess
It's shape as that of a woman's frame. So
May you retain your shape, and so the show
May go as planned. Pick up your Gucci purse;
It's black reminds you of your father's hearse
Yet you still carry it on your shoulder?
Perhaps your heart has grown, has grown colder.
Now towers place upon your tender feet
In order that they rise above the sleet
That's pouring down outside. Were you ever
Considering being a bride? Clever
Form though you may be in your mind of wiles
You will falter in time to man's guile's.
Wrap around your arms a shawl of silk; cling
To it well in the cold, lest your skin sing
Out it's discomfort from the frosty bite
That clings to your skin in the dead of night.
Now go to the door, where a young man waits
In order to find out from you the rates
Which you would use in order to sell your
Goods now shown. In the frame of hell, this door
You wait to take his arm; overpower
His senses, to his alarm! And why sure
Footed woman do you so desire
To place within this man a burning fire
Without first proving to yourself his worth?
Or could you care less of his noble birth?
Do you care for your own for that matter?
Are you as mad as that sad mad hatter?
Whatever the reason you're gone with him;
And he within your presence doth now swim.
Until you return to the door of hell;
Lure him in in order to whisper, tell
Him a secret that will tickle his ears
With a beauty turned wild with worldly needs...
Your body doth hunger, with you it pleads
To be free from this game, this trap of pain,
To end this endless night of mad refrain!
But even as he enters, you the door
Close without pausing; do not so abhor
The action that is becoming concrete...
The door shuts tight without missing a beat...

                        Caught in Traffic, (c) Luke Bennette, October 2012