The Fourth Woman Poem by RIC BASTASA

I am honest enough to appear
As myself to her: a naked man that she can touch
In a dark room, as dark as her hair

She was laughing and keeps on changing her
Form, she is liquid, and takes a lot of shapes
She transforms from bat to frog, to tigress
To lioness to kangaroo to dino
To amazon to samurai to warrior to mulan
To a street protester to clenched fists

She loves me she cannot love me like
I am a man to her, who kisses her and
Licks her, she cannot have anything overwhelming
She cannot be overpowered with anything
Including desire.

Naked, I pulled my brief and trousers and belted
Myself and took my shirt and buttoned loose ends
I am tight tongued.

She looks away but she is back in her form: a woman
A beautiful woman betrayed.

She kisses me. It was too late, I have become invisible
I was no longer in her room, as dark as her hair.

I take some pains with me. It won’t take long, I will be home.
My geisha is waiting. She is always there in the fealty of woman.