Spellbound Poem by Juan Olivarez

She was beautiful beyond mere words
Her dress of black and white
With the exquisite diamond pattern
Clung as if skin to her

Her tongue began touching the sides of her mouth
A totally obscene gesture
Corners turned perpetually up
In a stoic smile

Her eyes were enchanting
Hypnotic, mesmerizing but cold
And the silence was so deafening
I could hear her breathing

She swayed sexily, slowly in a compromising
Sort of way

She undulated in front of me
With a come hither motion
That had me glued to the spot

And then
In the back of my mind
As if from a million miles away....
I heard the castanets

And through the haze in my mind
I saw her coiled, and ready to strike
I had never jumped so far back in my life
Snakes are beautiful, but deadly

Just like women

3/2/2016
29 Palms Ca.