Want
to Be A Stripper
by Ellyn Maybe
Want to be a stripper
Want to sell something
Want to travel
I thought of being a stripper
a girl came into an open mike
and said how she used to be a stripper
it was humiliating
men are jerks to the 100th power
they made us feel like objects she said
I thought that sounds like my life
it sounds like woman's life
our clothes come off in other eyes
why won't that one talk to you
why won't that one sing a song for you
likes your clothes
likes your mind
strip so someone else can know you
strip so you can know yourself
$150 a night
on a slow night
as a woman you're always on display
$4.25 an hour
you walk cross the street
a man shouts hey fat girl
he strips your mind
strip mining for ladders to climb
to ejaculate his ego
the land won't be the same
stripping for yourself
putting on Neil Young records
writing a manifesto
life is a nudist camp
if you're perceptive
you can pretty much tell
where things stand
where are the callouses of love?
practice living long enough
and you might get callouses
yet you might not
where does language end and truth begin?
he mentioned illusion
he mentioned reality
he mentioned the past the present
and the future
he talked with a coyote tongue
he held me with one finger clinging
to the edge of a cliff
he fell first in my eyes
he fell second in my mind
I wanted to pull him up to solid ground
maybe not entirely solid
maybe baying with tie-dyed alligators
made his voice sound so smooth
I thought his teeth were
full of light and mirrors
I wanted to see
what I wanted to be there
he said we can't...
to whatever the question was
he said the earth is our mother
I heard him say that
he is holier than a piece of wafer
he is holier than a dreydel
he is holier than an ashram
he won't let you forget
who he is
he has the power
to wet your underwear
make you oversleep
make your tears run races
make you go crazy
crazier than it might have gone
if you hadn't met
he's well respected
a sage with a hard philosophy
he's on a tangent about 500 years
he's making so much sense
my mind is in orgasm
simultaneous kindred spirits
hell this ain't easy
genetic memory he says
genetic just like crazy we live to survive
we are
you are
we are
you are
I am
you are
I am, I said, fed up with your hypocrisy
your genetic memory is Caligula
your genetic raincoat is Pinocchio
you're fooling almost everyone
almost all the time
they ought to create a museum for you
yes, wow, a girl can't avoid
being a stripper
paying a price
receiving something in her underwear
or receiving something in her mind
her heart a heart
searching for callouses
as much as she wants
to be understood
93 percent of the time
she wants to be an astronaut
she feels like she's in a different world
most of the time
she wants to be a woman
in a world where history
and herstory have an equal chance,
where people realize the sacredness
of callous and lack thereof
the trouble of obtaining a passport
for a heavier than baggage requirement mind
Yes the women are stripping
Yes they're shedding new skin
Yes the women.
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