Asking for It

On the blind channel, Jane Russell’s wrists strain the leather straps,
Her bosoms in her filmic Howard-Hughes-created bra,
Contorted like wadded socks in the wash.
The narrator says, “She turns from Billy in disgust.”

But . . . really?

Blind folks aren’t getting the whole story of The Outlaw,
Any more than unblind ones see what is on the screen.

Eros told Psyche not to look at him,
And she did anyway.
She was told she would see a monster when she held
The lamp to his face,
And what she saw did not disgust her,
Any more than being held captive disgusted Jane.

It does not mean we ask for it when we are tied to the monster,
But something does.

–Shaun Perkins