The Lesbian Body, for Monique Wittig
- The Lesbian Body, for Monique Wittig
When you encounter her face, be still and wait.She'll lift her eyes to your eyes, replenishingyour horizon as a doe to the brook bendsto drink the wetness.
How many lovers have you, how many girls?Do you take them one by one or all at once,like fireflies thrashing in your hand, a burningof wing-scars, tattoos?
She says: why should we marry as they marry?Burn it at both ends, defiantly burn itas you burn the law, as you burn words,as you incinerate me.
The melting sex of her language poured acrossmy nipples, honey from the hive, her throat, hertongue, slit, thigh burnishing her utmost pleasure,her syllabic cry.
The sex of her and the second sex of her.The asymmetry of her, the clime of herdifference. Her wiles, tricks, and metaphysics.Her ruses, her charms. [End Page 282]
Camille Norton is the author of Corruption: Poems, a National Poetry Series winner published by HarperCollins. Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2010. She is professor of English at University of the Pacific, Stockton, California.
