------------
The Ethics of Seduction
or
Five Years of Shyla and Ramy

I could explain to you what it means
to be fragile, to spin glass wings from
shards of mirrors broken by errant ex
lovers; but I don't think it'd get through
and I don't care enough to make you.

Acute jaw and clear-eyed obsession
she's unconscious honey and you're
the worst kind of parasite: feeding off
a street-girl the way you would a
business deal. Sure you mask it in
friendly flirtation but I watched you fail
psychology, you don't understand
your own motives. I did your homework.
Your friend first, but she never touched
me so you know where my loyalties lie.

Yeah I could explain to you that
unless you're honest you'll never get
inside her: she's never been bedded
for the fun of it, sex is a means of
survival, the only thing that keeps
her innocent. I could tell you the true
things, like she's out of your league
but you're the only boy who's gotten
this close.

Watch me keep her curfew like I was her
boyfriend and you were her best friend, wary
of the way your eyes drift to her thighs dark
under rain-swathed pink silk, transparent
and easy to understand. Just like her.

Except her honesty and vulnerability, so
unguarded, offering herself to any stranger who
juxtaposes kindness with surprised sincerity:
she shocks you into being real. That's why you
want her, and that's why I have to save her.