Sweaty Air Poems    
by Yusef Komunyakaa


Devilment

She stands in Barnes & Noble
With her left hand over her mouth,
And her right holds a thick book
Displaying an Etruscan satyr,

A King of mischief in green bronze.
Are they tipsy from afternoon
cocktails? Bracelets & rings
Make the fluorescence sashay

Between the slow aisles. "Lord,
Now, this Is what I call a cock"
Echoes and hangs over the bookshelves.
Her friend laughs till they're both

Laughing. How many evening gowns
Can outlast this story back home?
In a half dance, the satyr's left
Hoof seems to lift off the ground.












"The Thorn Merchant's Mistress," "The Thorn Merchant's Wife" and "Woman, I Got the Blues" from Neon Vernacular by Yusef Komunyakaa ?1993, Wesleyan Press by permission of the University Press of New England.

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