What is it

about a sexy woman

that makes men believe?

I watched a movie, yesterday

where the struggling writer

has an x-wife

who won’t let him see his kid.

She won’t talk to him

and she says all kinds of vile things about him

behind his back

to his boy.

The writer professes his love to his son

and tells him, what his mother says isn’t true.

“I will buy braces for you,

to straighten your teeth, right after

I finish, this book.

It’s about a gangster.”

A couple of days go by, and he spies

a voluptuous woman

in a red bathing suit

at his really run-down apartment.

She has nothing on, of course

but time (his time),

like a second skin

like debt, waiting to be collected.

He can’t resist her

She has a boyfriend, who comes by

and punches him in the face.

She neglected to tell him about the other man.

It’s true (what they say), beautiful women are in demand.

I wonder if they know

how far

men

are willing to go?

I think they do, but they pretend not to know.

I understood

this power

for the first time

in middle school.

I didn’t have it

The women had it

Before that, I believed my teachers

who told me, “Men have the power.”

I believed their lies

at my own peril.

It’s the apparel

women wear.