What's so wrong about Erotic Poetry

Poetry by Alexis Ayala

What’s so wrong about Erotic Poetry?

“To see where love and desire relate,

but also, conflict, lies the mystery of eroticism.”

I heard that quote from a psychologist who

specializes in eroticism.

And the quote alone made my heart thump so loud

And so fast like the way his hips thrust into me.

And I thought, “What’s so bad about Erotic Poetry?”

Nothing.

It’s human nature, and the stories you hear about

the purpose of sex is a lie.

Sex isn’t just for reproduction, sex is for

Anticipation for that moment.

The moment when your breath catches;

You can feel it in your stomach

As goosebumps rise like dominos fall,

when dizziness dances from

All that moaning, it’s almost hyperventilating

now.

And he drinks every drop

from my cascade, so I ask again,

What’s so bad about Erotic Poetry?

Because, damn, did that feel good.

I did some research and thinking,

and I’ll admit,

at first, all I was thinking about

were my own selfish pleasures,

allowing my brain to go off

on steamy sex tangents like above.

And I even took a break from this poem

to divulge in myself.

That’s when I realized

What was so wrong with Erotic Poetry.

Eroticism is cultural.

So, for me, a female,

I feel like a man

in a man’s world.

I mean, I take the chains,

I take control from the power

men are automatically born with

physically and metaphorically.

Historically, each fetish

has a social history of its own.

When foreign commodities

turned European’s on,

and by foreign commodities,

I mean slavery.

Fetishes for Africans

is what’s wrong with eroticism.

Because eroticism comes

from an individual’s desire.

And a white man’s desire is

entitled owning.

I see now, where love and desire relate,

but also, conflict.

And the mystery of eroticism

is the same mystery that lies in poetry.