Late Summer in a Just-Opened Pub

Arvid van Maaren

I dressed up for the first time in months

to look for the male gazes I needed

to sit on a terrace and feel free

(they want us to shop local, won't they?)

What if I just want to be drunk instead?

So I saw you first and you approached me

I am a siren when on vodka; bending, not

breaking; answering the unanswered

(after which wordless I become)

So I gave myself, unprepared and naked

and he - he just laughed, kill-joked, 

did try an 'I want you to pose for me'

(for his own not my thrill, obviously)

A zoomed-in side of myself, after all

a loud silence is what I've waxed 

The bliss of giving your body away 

turned into harm done, a misdeed  

for the rest of the week

(So slap me again, why won't ya?)

•••
Arvid van Maaren became an avid bookworm owing to the endless stories her mum and the library supplied her with. Her love for words led her to teaching and translating some well-sounding languages, subsequently bringing her to write her own poems. Some of her work has been published in some anthologies... leaving a crave for more! She was born in Rotterdam 51 years and 1 month ago and adores housesitting in The United Kingdom and Spain.