Let's Play Pretend For Real

Brass guitar strings for floss
Clothespins for earrings
Teeth accruing gaps
Earlobes becoming pancakes

Brass tastes like copper
Clothespins pinch like teeth
You like space in between
And breakfast in bed

Arm’s length my phone rings
Little to lose playing craps
My body and you’re the boss
Be it shackles or snakes

Innocuous the ad’s lien
My pulse a dance in my head
Responding, an impulsive shopper
Finger to blade bypassing sheath

Promise and threat commingle
A jumble of letters black and white
Filling plain space
I read the line twice

Tie you up tight
You’ll like my basement
I’ll like your legs and arms
And…everything…in between

Attracted by voluntary disgrace
Experiment: body parts and mice
Thrumming tongue, a catchy jingle
Caught in my throat tonight

A thick rope strung from air vent
Hints of plotted harms
Guaranteeing my plight
Promising to be very mean

You’ll wear yourself
I’ll turn you inside out
Precluding more questions
Explicitly simple directions

Like following a crumb trail
My basest drive found your way
Fresh air piercing bared skin
Car and calm abandoned

Balmy glow I wouldn’t see without
Inside bereft of suggestions
Abandoning feigned stealth
So noted, simple instructions

“Come downstairs—I win.”
Outside of suddenly, jammed in
Bound limbs, a physical jail
Almost excited, ready to play

Pretend it hurts, a command
And it does, for real, and good
In my nostrils a scent
Of salt and sweat and man

Rubbing your finger
Across nodules perk and fixed
It’s mine, my blood
Human juice worth drinking

Hard right angle, your body bent
Masked face, my eyes scan
Harnessed jaw, growled demand
Musk flasked beneath your hood

Your tension my sprawl mixed
Pitched, high, my screams aflood
Your shroud the captor, you linger
I twist, my turn, your power shrinking