PORNO LADIES

In this series they are all blond –

shoulder-length hair that their partners

can sweep away from their mouths

while they are bent over, as if

caressing them but really

clearing the debris

so the camera

can move in for the action.

You can’t tell

if the color is real

because they are shaved, prepped

for operations. As are their partners

whose faces they never really get to see,

standing around for their turn, keeping

their spirits up with fast-moving hands.

In this series the men

never take off their shoes

even when they’re on the beach

and the sea engulfs all five of them

and the woman they are all

trying to enter. What really gets in

is the sand, I’m sure, its black

grainy texture sharp

on her white skin.

And I am thinking how she

prepares for a shoot like this—

the hairdresser, the barber, the

gynecologist waiting on the sidelines

to inject her with antibiotics— how

she goes over the script,

the choreographed positions,

consideration for each

of the partners waiting

in a doggie circle,

how she practices

the crescendos of cries

And where I

can get everlasting

lipstick like that

home