MARYELLEN CAMMAROSANO

PORTRAIT OF A GIRL

hadn’t you escaped your past, a fame of sorts,
under harsh lights, being groped and grabbed by
men’s big fingers or women,
sliding slim dollars
into the crevices of your body?
 

you shifted seamlessly between pyramids of people
between men and women
you loved and sucked and searched,
whose brows you kissed
before they went out into the day.
 

you could hit a homerun and not break a nail
and make the bookie’s bets.
 

your voice is smoke and chimes,
you’re rugged and kind.
 

did you mean to have your amber hair across my breasts and thighs?
when you moved over me, did you know whom you wanted when, really—
 

because you can’t escape a battering man
who beats and bruises your beautiful face
and twists your new breasts into pain, not pleasure.
 

my heart thumps for how he left you
hobbling somewhere
for how he dented your body made perfect by a scalpel,
 

I wanted to kiss you just a little hard
but I loved your heart most,
 

so I left, since I could not give you destruction
 

and on leaving,
 

I wept
for the sadness of things
 

More of Maryellen's work may be seen on Poetz 2001.