One In Three
Offspring of the rib
Soft enticement of the flesh ---
Woman beauty draped
Mother rebelling
Children to sag on the breast
Eve pining at God
Mother submitting
Heaven's pleasure in the skin
Mary, bringing the Christ
Magdalene, my thirst
For caress of oil and love
Open core of milk
Summon Anat too
With Aphrodite, Venus kiss
And the open pea
All one in love's three
The triumvirate of praise
The edge of prayer
Goddesses are whores
And whores as goddess reigns still
Love sells men cheap to dreams
Samson, not I,
Menelaus too, heart blind
Left me stupefied
And yet I am sure
Any woman's love is better
Than no love at all
Mother's are virgins
In son's eyes, wives are his shrines
And whores are his peace
Where sin mars desire
And the moon sets blood on fire
For breast and children.
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