Figures of Speech
by Michelle Hartman



For some time I’ve used exaggerated body language
hip bumps, hand touches and euphemisms to get
my point across.
Stomped up to obvious line in the sand
with, I bet you can…
yet, nothing has happened.
Although figures of speech are indirect, they are designed
to clarify, not obscure.  But you were absent that day
and I am growing older.
I say tonight we go to my house and take off our clothes.

You, lying on the bed will be Pearl Harbor and I
shall be a Japanese Zero.
In days to come when we are questioned about our limps
we can go back to speaking in metaphor.