Pride and Virginity

The antlers atop

The head of the stag

Come to sharp points that should have aided

In his defense

For the day when that huntress came.

She took his life,

His body,

His spirit.

He’s now at her mercy and although he may run

And leap

And bound,

She’ll reap those antlers

From the top of his head so noble,

So nobly from the top of his head.

His pride will be lost

Among the trees

Of the wood

All because of one moment:

In one moment it was over,

He felt the sensuality of submission,

Of letting his antlered head hang low

To the ground

In one act of desperate measure that changed him forever.

One moment that let him give in.

The bloody teeth of the huntress,

Now sunk into his flesh

(Sunk so deep in his flesh)

Are stained the color of roses.

And she left his body for the vultures to take.

Though the stag

Still breathes

(Inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale slowly)

From his once noble lungs,

Those vultures they

Circle around the

Antlers atop

The prideful head of

The one who gave

In.

His once graceful feet

Are in no shape for flight,

For he’s felt it once (he’ll want it again).

Overtired and beaten

From the run,

The need to escape,

He’s forgotten almost everything,

Including the memory of that need.

He has only the memory of her smile

As she asked

So sweetly

(But demanded all the same),

“Come lie here with me.

Keep me warm tonight?”

These unspoken words

(“You have no choice”)

Were there all the same.

Those unspoken words were there.