The debutantes unfurl their game faces For Southern gentleman with fat wallets Credence is given to long held family names with distinguished pedigrees They reserve their special womanly charms For the ones with plantations covered in Spanish moss And men whose business interests in Savannah and Charleston Take them away for weeks on end The slaves toil in the fields and are tallied in ledgers like livestock But these civilized belles only see the wealth of white men And the servility of the servants, the burdens of back lashes of no concern Perspiration glistens off cleavage, Perfume strategically placed Wafts through the air as an aphrodisiac to the affluent The genteel manners mask a well of emotion Rippling right beneath the surface It only erupts as the slaves turn in and the guests say their goodbyes The click-clack of hooves on cobblestones in the distance Announce itβs time Then dresses are dropped Corsets are shed And the night is pierced by the moans of lovers The indentured servants take their turns giggling silently With their ears against the door Passion begets lust And lust begets fornication All manner of depravity is exposed when the manners are off Women possessed of ****** desire I have witnessed many things in my day But nothing is more evil or more beautiful than a Southern belle