let us praise that there are so many scenes to be ode-d to

 

let us praise season 3 episode 1

when Dro pauses to say “ooooh, I missed you…”

and Molly shushes him, puts her hand on his head

and gets him right back down to work

 

let us praise all the men who don’t say

“only if you’re clean”

while insisting we must go down on them

because we all know

that cleanliness needs to be a mutual thing

 

everything about this needs to be

a mutual thing

 

let us praise all the not-so-great

going down we do as teenagers,

because none of us know any better

at that point

so anything is a good thing

and let us praise all the men

who pay attention and do get better

 

let us praise all the men who go down

and stay down, rather than a quick-lick-

and-you’re-done-now-it’s-my-turn

 

let us praise all the men who know

that when they find that right spot,

that right rhythm, that right movement,

that right pressure,

and our breathing has changed

and we are clearly getting close….

that they shouldn’t change a thing

unless we ask for that

 

let us praise the nose breathers

who can stay down for a good long time

 

let us praise those men who’ll go down

after they’ve come in you

 

actually, let us praise those men twice

 

let us praise all the women before us

who taught these men a thing or two

which we reap the benefits of

 

let me praise my man

for that moment when he pauses,

before diving into me tongue first,

looking at my pussy in all its magnificence,

and smiles to himself

like the first time a leaf unfurls and feels the sun

like a moth getting its first taste of cashmere

like a storm about to be taken down by the house

 

 

 


Paula Harris lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand, where she writes and sleeps in a lot, because that’s what depression makes you do. She won the 2018 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize and the 2017 Lilian Ida Smith Award. Her writing has been published in various journals, including The Sun, Hobart, Passages North, New Ohio Review and Aotearotica. She is extremely fond of dark chocolate, shoes and hoarding fabric.