THE EROTIC MIRROR
from the Governor's Motor Inn
under glass in the museum
like women's clothes
from Plains Cree
hung behind glass,
still sained with bloody
holes from arrows.
"In boudoirs, bordellos
and honey moon hotels
people have used mirrors
for erotic pleasure,
the visual stimulation
of looking at one's self
and one's partners as
objects of desire." But
I think of the young
girl lured here by a
man twice her age
who she saw do sports
on tv in high school
and walked out of the
room never imaging
a heart shaped
bed she'd see her
breasts and thighs
split on in the
mirror above as
she skidded like
a skater feeling her
blade slip one
second into the
Olympic final
over red velvet
pillows in terror.
Only when his snores
make ripples in the
water under them
and she can watch light
glitter in the prisms'
ice, see her thighs
are not ugly, that her
hair is cut maple
sun slides over on
the sheets does she
find anything pleasing