Sowed the seeds of sweat
shining barley crop smiles
a harvest season

2
Mom croons lullaby
baby in silent motion
dreams peek from window

3
Her ******* allure me
attraction at equal heights
images of contours

4
Girl with golden hair
adolescence lands on earth
beauty pageant

A pair of stays to bind in fashion,

Stiff bodice lift those ample *******,

French sophistication and ***** south,

Linen lines taken from the robin's nests.




Once seen in times known to all Baroque,

Steel cages more true to the name,

Renaissance blushed at the very sight,

This hidden and blustering shame.




Georgian era was always that late,

Yet women united to sheer the skin,

Frills and cuffs were the new bloom,

The dowdy apron given to the bin.




Victorian, Edwardian seen a rise of empire,

When romance boasts the whale bone done,

Now scattered in all weddings and burlesque,

Dear Corset is set in memory to run and run.

to be
kneaded,
in squashy,
jelly ecstasy,

falling over
tumultuous,
a largess of
festivity,

woman,
not as much
as your walk,
talk or nature,

but that one
boom-rocket,
eminent, salient
feature,

lickety, suckety,
twistety, pressety,
lurety, bitety,
fever,

closety, graspety,
claspety, grabety,
clungety, playety,
severe,

twins to be
tended, a little
gorge, to lash
tongue betwixt,

to be clasped,
lurch after
each tip,
tender,

half-earths,
cast on a
potter's wheel,
sun baked,

shaped in
rain's fluidity,
winter's rigidity,
summer fire,

lover's calm,
luster's oasis,
sumptuous,
lush spread,

breeze at
a tree top,
monuments
in rhapsody...

Gendering Woman *******

Beautiful, anatomical part //  Ugly, anatomical part
Natural, pleasurable             //   Burdensome, loathsome
Female Symbolic                //    Femme Symbolic
MALIGNANT                             HEALTHY

fearful, tearful, wretched     //  joyful, hopeful, euphoric,
bereft, wept, grieving          //  embryonic, rapt, relieving
leaving, loss                         //  believing, gain
m a y b e - d e a t h                                            r e - b i r t h
                                                   BI-LATERAL
                                             MASTECTOMIES
Operating Theatre

SURGEON                                         ANAESTHETIST
cleaning/ cutting/ knife/ scalpel   //   doping/ unconscious/ airway
blood / tissue                                 //   hypotension
loss/ damage                                 //   shock
drains                                             //   sinus rhythm
stitches                                           //   pain deadening
tight binding                                 //   reversal drugs
                                    
POST-OPERATIVE
a l i v e                                                a w a k e

draining, bound & stitched               draining, bound & stitched
                                            DRAINED
    ­                                   ~ UNBOUND
                                       -- UNSTITCHED –

Empty chest                                                    Flat Chest
FREEDOM from Disease                               FREEDOM from Dis-ease


© M.L.Emmett

words are wasted darling,
can't add an alphabet more...  

but make o's of your lips,  
measure the girth of your hips,  
tease the buds of thy nips,  
sip honey, lick nectar,  

fork a tongue into you,  
pierce your insides,  
twist your wild hair
around me,  
bolt love,  
blindfold you,  

warm your ******* to
the incandescence
of the moon,  

nibble your ear ends,  
step away a moment,  
gaze at your island body  
your shy fluidity,  

watch you bathe
in candlelight,  
catch every
running drop
off you,  
every globule,  

wrap you up,  
unknot you,  
tie your hands together,  
feed you a smear
of chocolate,  
seat you
on a chair,  
eat off you,  

days and nights shall embrace us,  
seasons weave a cocoon,  
ice slide down our bodies  
and I shall make love to you,

and now as I utter  
these little strands
in whispers,  
I am here entwined to you,  

I promised to read out these lines  
if I ever make love to you,  

now that the words
are in communion,  
let us dearest,
bid them adieu

When I asked you for the naked truth,
It was not an invitation,
To strip bald at Starbucks,
And opera sing the national anthem.

Although I’m sure the  ovation and applause was exhilarating,
And my god, I was certain you were going to fall off our table,
In fact, I now think a birthday suit should be mandatory,
For everybody when they sing the nation's song.


Never the less,
In future I will choose my clichés more carefully.
God knows what you’d have done
Had I asked you to bare your soul.
It was an unsettling first date, yet I am intrigued.
Text me if this Friday works for you.