The Lioness Arising and the Temptress

I’ve let you in and

you’ve made camp.

You’ve searched and now

have found a space in my heart,

you’ve made a room for yourself and

have gotten nice and cozy, comfortable even.

You sit in my living room,

on my couch and you lounge out.

How angry you make me! No more of this!

By your hair,

screaming scripture in your ear,

I’ll drag you out of my house.

Away from my temple and

out on to the curb of the streets

where you belong,

since you want to play hooker and

be a whore the whole time.

Screaming at me,

calling after me,

saying how we are one and

that we cannot part,

that I need you and

that this is the only way men

will ever want me.

Trying to convince me that

I need you more than you need me.

Telling me that we work well together

when really,

we’re like good and evil,

we’re as different as oil and water,

like night and day,

light and darkness,

order and chaos,

we are opposite sides of the same coin, you see.

And I don’t need you.

You’re a mouse,

a rat,

scurrying on the ground at night

looking for what she can scrape off or

can steal that isn’t hers to take,

or what was never hers in the first place.

I don’t need you.

What’s a mouse to a lioness?

You were never my shepherd,

not even a fellow sheep,

but a mere wolf, you female dog.

What a pity were you.

What a lousy woman you made me out to be.

So, I march up to your room

where all your fantasies of

laying with men

(who you don’t even know) and

the wicked desires you have

to do things with them or

have done to you by those men,

some married....

Those fantasies,

they dance around and

play out like a record on repeat.

There,

I will gather these things in my arms and

toss them out on the street next to you.

With evil eyes,

slit like a cat’s,

you glare at me and

hiss your disapproval, thinking

I made a mistake when I have not.

I have simply done something that

should have been done a long time ago.

Tell me,

what are the ways of a whore to

the gracious steps and precise care

of a lioness?

That was my fault

for being hospitable and foolish

to a lustful temptress like you.

That was my fault

for allowing you to sneak in

Then openly allowing you

to make your bed in my home….

Such a fool was I.