Parade

The noise is immence.
 Touching me,
brushing here,
grazing there.

Wooden shoes on my feet
making hollow sounds
on hard streets
closing in on me
tap
tap
tap
stop.
Here is where I will stand.

The sun glares
over the tulip princess
Around the curve of her breast,
beyond the painted smile
and tissue paper surface.
 
I catch your eye.
Behind your dark glasses
I know you are watching me.
Taking it all in,
absorb my image
every detail.
Feast for the eye
as my lover watches me
in this sickening crowd.

The acrid smell of exhaust,
the painted clowns,
the laughing children.
Cotton candy fingers clutching
 balloon hearts.

The men that look at me like meat.
I know what they see.
I know what they think.
I know what they want.

Such a pretty girl.

If they only knew what lurks
beneath this skin.

If they only knew what you do,
of the deviance that stands here
on this street corner.
Under the blaring sun,
watching the tulip princess
and her procession roll by.

Beyond the painted smile
and tissue paper surface.