To think about what sort of a gap is there in her clothes
that exists not from poverty but from pretense
What shape will be shown
How much undulation of flesh
How are the lines on cotton shaping
the grain of her skin,
the tones of her dulcet character.
To cover up each time with clothes is to think each time
What to leave bare
How much variegated skin
From where
How do clothes hanging on a line
remind of the bodies that inhabit them
So that to see through the skin of human flesh
would be to peel off the the essence of a person.
To think that clothes and accessories
constitute a woman more
than the blood and the hate just beneath her skin.
Because we can afford to have her dance on our laps
And have us touch her unhidden, vulnerable body.
But it would be too much
to have her strip her skin
Until all that's left is her mind.
Until all that's left is her mind.