Beast

if i ever date a boy
i want him to take me to the theater

not the movies

a theater with red velvet seats
gilded arches of swan necks lifting the
stardusted ceiling to the moon and the stars
with divas draped in fabrics and jewels in all the colors
you'd find at the marché de plein air
in the crates of fresh fruit, ripened, glistening --

my mouth waters

with dashing baritones -- the vibrato throbbing
in unison with the pulsating red rivers
flowing under my prickling skin
i want to take that deep, lulling voice
wrap it around my bare shoulders on a summer night


that's what i was thinking last night
as i sat on the balcony
watching the beauty fall for the beast
and as the enchanting little girl beside me
strummed arpeggios across my heart strings
with her staccato giggles and allegretto chatter
and i thought of him -- that one who sits beside me in class every day
-- an idle, subconscious thought --

but then you came back to me that night
and as i awoke from that wretched dream
all my memories of you
poured down like a torrential rain storm
drowning within me

and though i know my heart has enough love
for a child of my own
i don't know if
i can ever learn to open myself up again