Emily's Turn (After Billy Collins) Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

Billy leads people to believe
That it was he who seduced me,
That his manly hands on my stays
Released me from my frigidity.

He describes me standing at a window,
Passive, tremulous,
Hesitant to step
Out of my dress and into his bed.

He claims victory in our history.
He may flatter me with a simile
But he is still a man reducing a woman
To a masturbatory fantasy.

As dead as I am, I am helpless
To redress this attack on my dignity,
This imagining of my timidity.
This one-sided boast in poetry.

Anyone who has read me knows
That it is I who enchant.
It is I who wrap my white arms
Around the reader's neck and whisper,

"Climb the stairs with me
And we will have wild nights,
Wild nights -
Flying on my hope
Debauched in my dew
Drenched in my Ecstasy
If you are man enough
To abandon yourself to me."