80spoems/blkwido

BLACK WIDOW

She has acquired a reputation
she didn’t earn,
the way some women
acquire diamonds.
Life made her what she is.
We needn’t qualify facts,
attribute an interpretation
and carry it into corridors
where it doesn’t belong.

She has acquired a reputation,
a misapplication of fear,
men afraid they are going
to be swallowed whole,
consumed.

Middle-class men carrying
their brief cases home,
afraid to roll their women over,
to see the hour glass on the belly.
They yearn for the black negligee
now and then, but grow uneasy
if it is trimmed in red, forgetful
humans and spiders cannot mate.

’86-’87
La Jolla Shores