Weapons of Seduction - 2016




Instead of picking at myself
like an old scab
I'm going to build a bower
and litter it with bits of blue

you walk towards me
down a Coles aisle
and walk a cute crooked line
like a peroxided Chandler drunk
you're wearing blue
and I want to fly off with you
like a bower bird snitching a bright
blue plastic peg —

under the ripe white moon
looming in broad daylight
flashing all its deep craters
I am pulled like the sea
and feel quite washed up
until
you touch my face
with your fine right hand
and I see it glitter
like a carved Minoan
blue octopus gem stone
and I'm going to sever it
if you leave it lying about
and fix it with bluetack
to my bower wall,
I want to keep it.


I'm not up to my bower dance
but I have other weapons
of seduction,
watch my face
I'll hold my breath
until I turn blue
see?
didn't I always say
I'd die for you.

- Dorothy Porter