POETRY
      John West — 'Pasolini's Mother's Vagina'

He kept seeing her, stapled onto a cross
and between her thighs
a clenching, night-black ravine
Doc Edelston quipped
that he worked where other men play
and Pete and Dud
created an entire sketch
about the one that belonged to Joan Crawford
the trucks and the battleships there
while you tell me you’d previously thought
that, for men, half of Freud’s theories
were ensconced up there
being a baby, a child and a father
(another quarter most likely
were entirely concerned with the breasts)
we have never taken yours too seriously
(we laugh far too much for that!)
although it’s certainly slippery and warm
yes, it’s real, and it’s yours
but you make it so freely there
just for us to enjoy together!