Tonight's Poet Corner: True Goddess

True Goddess
by Belinda Roddie

You expose yourself
to a world that does not obey you,
your puckered breasts wrinkling further
beneath the salt water in the ivory
bath tub, dragging you deeper
and deeper into its raspy depths.

I see how much you want the crowd
to idolize you, but when you are built
from brass instead of garnished
with gold, the strength is there, but the
shine is less appealing.

You must buckle your belt and straddle
the tongue in a hungry minotaur's
mouth. You can leash the beasts
without casting your armor aside.
Vulnerability does not make you
sympathetic. It is only

power, as raw as uncooked meat
on a steel plate, that sways anyone
to drop their own drawers and shake
their hips to the rhythm of your
sage songs.