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.