The Unbraiding

Beauty wraps itself
around forbidden
fruit.  No one told me
the rules or that
a game was being played.

Men hunt my beauty
even as I hunt
their strange desires.
their outer limits
giving the least of me
for the most of them.

Later, when I unbraid my hair,
treasure of my small universe,
I will  comb through their secret sighs
searching for some sign
of what was stolen
at my beginning.