A Life of Crime

You chose me w­­ith your eyes. You tell me, everyone tells
That love is blind. Such lies make maggots of our souls.
My face, dear victim, was your only mercenary goal.
You chose me first with your eyes. Their hunger overwhelms.

You chose me next with your mouth, and you ate me alive,
You branded me as cattle, sizing me up despite my low
Breeding. Your starved mouth marketed your chosen beau,
You chose me with your mouth, trapping me with every bite.

Next came your thumbs, against my sculpted exterior pressed.
You loved my piano-key torso. Skinny, tinny tunes you played,
Across my outer self. Your scaling fingers firmly splayed,
Tanning the tan of my skin. Your thumbs chose next.

We chose together, the half-harmonies of mutual hours,
Books and films, a song. A spinning globe chose jaunts,
Here and there. We chose each others' bodies to haunt
With poltergeist passion. We chose, but it was not ours.

You chose me with each part of yourself that you can recognise,
I let you chose me, often with your tongue. I liked it best,
Let us not forget though, heart. Let’s see now undressed
Twin colonial chasms. You chose me first with your eyes.

No mascara now- your eyes are wet but why must you decry
My choices now? Why can’t I feast from the table of my choice?
What is freely given cannot be stolen. Hush that judicial voice,
The hypocritical sentence. I chose too, with my eyes.

Don’t bemoan my tepid heart if you cannot mercury move!
Your vegetable stumps will burst again through muddy damp,
I stole nothing. I take now only the passport stamps.
The defence rests, invoking only the will to choose.

N.B. This a response to the poem 'Badly Chosen Lover' by Rosemary Tonks.