I thought you were mulatto
Or at least a Latina
Because I don’t remember
Ever before
Seeing hair like a waterfall
Or an ass like dance floor
On a white girl, anyway

But then came your eyes
Reptile green and too ready
To start a war
or a cyclone
Like Salome
Or some other femme fatal
Turning everything upside down
A cat with the world at its paw

I should have guessed
you were from the dirty South
Sitting in that soul-food kitchen
with your legs on the counter
and a promise in between
that grin at your corners
and a cigarette like a gun
holding me up
and making me smoke
though I hadn’t intended to

Like the Mounted Police
I bet
you always get
your man

You put me in cuffs
and poured gas at my feet
You flicked your ash
and said
nobody had ever
looked at you like that before
Being a sucker
I believed it was true
But hell
I didn’t even know I was looking
Until it was too late
And by then
I was condemned.