The Hard Road In Between (Madonna/Whore)
21 February 2026
https://poems.culturing.net/2026/02/the-hard-road-in-between-madonna-whore/
I cannot determine if she
is sweet and mildly repressed
(with a few dark fantasies)
or a succubus who likes to play naive.
It's a winning strategy, if the goal
is total desolation
(for her more than anyone else).
I suppose it would teach her father a lesson.
Maybe I should leave them to it.
--
Nonetheless, Cupid deserves my praise.
How can even a wicked girl summon strength?
She cannot, but a god can, through the channels
of imagination. I'm stronger now, but I fear
she has only grown weaker.
--
Could she be a recovering succubus, who truly
means it this time, but carries the old habits,
the old desires? It's possible. Perhaps this fits the facts
more than anything else...a Blanche DuBois
to my Mitchell, but that story doesn't end well for her...
--
It begins to make sense, if she is not repressed,
but covert, hiding feelings and urges unfit for society.
To what extent do these feelings control her?
Perhaps a great deal. Does she know her way
through a dimly lit room? Does she know it by heart?
--
It is none of my business, except in so far
as it speaks to her character and capacity
for healthy love. But I cannot decide a priori.
I must step into this possible den of vipers,
ensuring my routes of escape.
--
Of course the only possible truth is that
she is both vamp and naif as the seasons permit.
Has some man locked her into a spiral
between Madonna and Whore? She could choose
to be neither, and walk the hard road in between.
--
Another possibility: does she perceive her own wickedness
in excess of the genuine article? Are these small naughty gestures
not a confession of truth, but of misperception of herself
as necessarily wicked because sexual by nature?
I do not know what to call this if not repression.
If so, then I hope she can find a better way, and learn
that sex is a beautiful thing, if done right.
--
What makes it "right" is a kind of respect
for the animal in the other. But this begins
with respect for the animal in oneself.
