They Are Afraid Of Us, The Women Poem by David P Williams

They are afraid of us, of course,
the women
Yet they allow us entry
to their very interior.
Alone with us, far from rescue,
they surrender.
We are bigger
and we are rough.
Is there a carnal dream that
excludes rough thrusting?
Then we vulnerably sleep.
Do women ponder Queen Sheba's dagger
returning a thrust in the night?

I've never understood why women
choose bad boys first.
A strategy to ward off gang rape?
Pair with the dangerous leader
who will control the others?

This I know, It is hard for a nubile girl
to walk alone unnoticed,
to single minded go about her business
without calls, without touches
without threats.

If she becomes our lover,
pregnancy threatens or blesses.
Life changing motherhood,
never again to be solitary
never feckless without reproach
never separate without concern

What pain and anxiety
is pregnancy.
Perhaps to lose the talisman
of beauty.

They are afraid of us
the women
they cannot be partners
if they are not first
safe