women writhing in blue
bodies lathered
woman-flesh on woman-flesh
flashing on canvas women
obeying his eye, his direction
the girls sliding
like worms, maggots
on a corpse electric, gasping
fish, thrashing for air
dancing for him on the canvas
he claims as his, the space
he never did touch
but still claims
as his the labor he claims
as his the bodies
he claims smothered
in blue, girl bodies
silent and writhing
while the one note symphony
plays while the man looks on
with his white teeth exposed
while the music swells
like a cock and the man sits
and does nothing at all

—

Aiden Baker lives in Berkeley, California, where she writes and teaches rhetoric. You can find her in Sonora, Ninth Letter, Orca, Variant Lit, The Shore, and elsewhere.

Photography by: Randy Tarampi