It cannot be displayed
for the window shoppers on our
Rodeo Drive of misery
Those who would gawk at our nakedness,
two mannequins with our limbs unmoored,
and tsk,
“Such a shame.”
We are without shame
and will wear our bruises
like this season’s latest fashions
A scarf, a scar, a scare
pregnant with ominous portent:
A life together
Behind glass, we are ripe for judgment
like New York or Paris or Milan
with their fetishistic lust for surface
They set the standard
But
in real life, no one looks like those models
and everyone’s ugly from the outside
What’s broken inside
was not sewn by machines
It cannot be duplicated
and it’s not for sale.