STRIPTEASE.

[dadio]

Lenny watches Kelly undressing.
There is that showbiz element,

The slow removal, the fingers taking
Off the cloth piece by piece, holding

In the air, twirling a few times then
Letting drop or tossing on a chair.

Music from the radio pushes out
Some 70s trash, but it doesn’t spoil

The scene, mar the act of undressing,
The artwork almost down to perfection.

Kelly pauses at the removal of her bra,
Her fingers fiddle from behind like blind

Lovers in a role, her tongue hangs out in
Concentration. Lenny lays and watches

And notices the purple love bites along
The neck, the shoulder, the back, the ass.

The bra’s removed; it’s let to fall to the floor.
Just the panties now remain, the pale pink

Flowery ones, the final bastion, the last scene
Of the show. The fingertips hold and slowly

Lower down along the thighs, calves, ankles
And then tossed like some bridal bouquet

Into the air, but none catches and they fall
Silently on a row of paperback poetry books.

Bukowski would have loved that gesture.
His well-thumbed book holds the crotch.