Sexiness Hidden and Revealed: A Poem

Sexiness Hidden and Revealed

Dear Lady,

What defines your sexiness?

It is not the lace collar tied conveniently behind your neck in an alluring cascading drape but perhaps instead the awkward way in which your everyday necklace peeks out from beneath that lace.

It is not the placement of your tattoo between and slightly above your bouncing breasts but instead your choice of its orange peach shading that looks almost like a child’s drawing of fruit.

It is not your thin tank top with its padded, constructed prominent cups but the way that your breath expands and contracts rapidly in your rib cage.

It is not the slimness of your hips but rather the strength of your hands against them, the way that your finger grips the crease in your thigh and causes a glint from your solitary silver ring to emanate from those nimble fingers.

It is not the see-through tulle of your crinoline skirt or the choice to barely cover your legs in fishnet but instead the selection of white fishnet against the nearly white flesh of your legs. It is the solidity of your stance tough beneath such gauzy clothing.

It is not that you wore boots but that you chose slouchy brown off-color un-matching ankle-height boots and that you pointed your feet in Warrior pose when asked to stand still.

It is not the slight feminine curl in your hair but perhaps the glimpse of a curved ridge of ear beneath the coif.

It is not the delicate features of your fine nose but that sliver of silver pounded through the nostril.

It is not the soft close of your shadowed lids, sultry though that may be, but the hard feeling you exude that suggests you can still see everything that is happening around you even with eyes shut.

We are many things, aren’t we lady? And that which defines is often not what is obvious, not what we choose to show but instead what quietly reveals itself as the inner truth behind all of the intentional trappings.

I wonder, do you know

Just how sexy you are?

Beyond the Poem

There aren’t a lot of secrets about this poem. Sometimes I write poetry that needs more of an explanation but in this case, I think that the entire point of the poem is clear without excess analysis. We, especially as women, make choices in our outward appearance that are designed to tell our stories but sometimes it is usually the core sense of the self showing through that is truly attractive to the right people. That’s what this poem is all about.

In terms of form, I chose an unconventional format for the poem with its long phrasing and sentence-by-sentence spacing. I then chose to exercise repetition to create a more poetic feel to the piece as well as to drill the point of the poem home. I chose to write the poem as if it were directly for one person because I wanted the reader to truly be able to picture this person who is tough and sexy on the outside but even sexier in ways she does not know.