What Women Desire Most

To be funny.

To wear dark suits. To be

listened to. To smile from

pleasure. To kill one or two people

at least once in their lives.

To scream. To stop having nightmares, stop

toughening.

Sleep.

A separate world.

To be free of the moon.

To be more unattentive

to smells. To say more,

conceal less. To keep the doctors

away. To struggle with a man in a pear

tree. Soft winds, cooling winds.

The smell of rain waking dirt.

To create hurricanes

from their nipples. To refuse

to define east or west.

To usurp the two-headed

king. A warm bath. Two

boa constrictors. To watch the snake

catcher try. Adam to tell the truth.

Two more fig leaves.

To have dinner with both Marys.

Fettucini. To stay

in touch. Sleeping

children. The surprise

of blossoms. Granny Smith apples.

To be in bed with a warm person

when thunder shakes

the windows. To feel God.

To die near a child.

More hands. More hands.

by Chris Allen Sullivan