An Ex-Princess Among Real Men (Cavatina Sequence) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Fleur Adcock)

She is constantly in the press flash light,
but tries to find
a kind of inner peace, some real meaning,
and hide behind
dark glasses, magazines, dark windows;
but in her mind
is turmoil, as she is being ignored;
with all her life she is very bored.

Her husband is daily playing the rich prince,
do not have time
to spend with her, is busy with horses
and is begrime,
he visits his married mistress daily,
he acts sublime
with affairs of business or state
and he forces her for attention to wait.

Of all her prince's inconsistencies
she is aware,
as a kind of exile, beyond a mask,
she still does dare
to choose her lovers, from real solid men
with utter care,
among tank commanders, paratroopers
and businessmen; avoiding snoopers.

When she finds a man of confidence
she gets astride,
loosen her fair hair and gets very wild,
shyness aside
she sucks at tongue, member, bite earlobe,
open up wide
to extreme intimacy with flaming eyes
that is bluer than cobalt skies

and if you think that I am only writing
of one woman,
then you have got it extremely wrong;
as long as man
does disregard, does exile his princess,
then if she can
someone else will entice her in joy,
even if it does her whole life destroy.

[Reference: 'The Ex-queen among the Astronomers' by Fleur Adcock.]