A Holy Man Encounters Lust

The poems are just filler, really. I'm not confident in the medium, but I enjoy exploring it. Will get back to some real sweaty pieces when I'm out of this slump I'm in.


I look at her.
She is across the street.
She bends down
To adjust her heels
So that they fit comfortably.
I do not look away.

I notice these details:
Her heels are red,
She is a wearing a dress
That cuts neatly
Far above her knees;
I can see her full leg.

This moment lasts
No more than four seconds,
But I think of Job.
There has been an agreement
Between Devil and God
To test me: A woman.

I see demons in her soft hair
Parading around the delicate roots.
And I see more crawl down
The long of her neck descending
Into a forbidden crevice.

When she bends down,
There is a shape.
I want to see and feel it,
Even if I know it is sin.
I think of her lower back -
Touching the gentle dip: A pit!

Out of the shape comes her legs.
Her thighs induce in me
Evil imaginations -
Fantasies of the flesh.
I recite the Lord's Prayer.
It is a useless gesture.

Because I am weak:
The calves curve
Down to the ankles
Which feign innocence,
But fail to conceal
The total creature
Of my most ungodly temptation.