The Value of Being Underestimated

So you're God's Big Dragon
Trampling flowerbeds for justice
And edifying maximums

I like the word "turn," but it doesn't
Fit you here. As new clothes, too small,
Bind the waist and trap the thigh, you
Twist to cut the farce, corners, and
Fill the beckoning spaces. And as
Teeth fall on piano keys, you
Sew beads into that web like a
Net where 88 dewdrops shine. So your
Moments bloat.

Did you ever carry that pain? To burn, as
I do? Did it cut you? The fissures
Descend and my doubts finger them, probe
The line, bruise themselves on lengthening
Cracks. Bloody me with questions and
Telling accusations. "Why didn't you" is
My mind's favored mantra, easily. You ask it
Of me, too. As it's forces on my mind
It's you in standing there, and as it's
Forced within, it's forceful outwardly.

         (I should have brought the key,
so I wouldn't get you up.)

They retro-guess me, and bump the
Pulley of my self-esteem. As poems are
Plucked, my body aches. I love a metaphor,
But it does not love me. My ire
Springs from what "I know" debates.

The noise contains me, and I sink into
Its folds. As deeper reds of my petal-
Heart, it curls to quell faster fear.
But for you women of Solomon who
Waste quicker days, I say: As Sodom's
An apple, wisdom's a snake. Don't feel
Pride in what you stumbled on. Man
Has been stupidly doing that for years (and
There he is, pants down in a war zone,
Dial and dogma firmly locked on "take").
If you know it, (stole it?), hoard it, don't
Show it. Smuggle it! Store it up - don't share.
Keep the blade inside your sleeve, and
You'll last longer here.