Sharon Olds, “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party”

When I take my girl to the swimming party
I set her down among the boys. They tower and
bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek,
her math scores unfolding in the air around her.
They will strip to their suits, her body hard and
indivisible as a prime number,
they’ll plunge in the deep end, she’ll subtract
her height from ten feet, divide it into
hundreds of gallons of water, the numbers
bouncing in her mind like molecules of chlorine
in the bright blue pool. When they climb out,
her ponytail will hang its pencil lead
down her back, her narrow silk suit
with hamburgers and french fries printed on it
will glisten in the brilliant air, and they will
see her sweet face, solemn and
sealed, a factor of one, and she will
see their eyes, two each,
their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes,
one each, and in her head she’ll be doing her
sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body.

(submitted by singingwiththunder

  1. blazeswitchsage reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  2. wolveswillcomeagain reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  3. scriboestcreo reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  4. mysterysmudgesextra reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  5. yesterdayisthetodayoftomorrow reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  6. satanmilleroppa reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  7. sumofhismisfortunes reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  8. nocturnalowlawakening reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  9. glittergutter reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  10. shespeaksoflight reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  11. teardropsarewaterfall reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  12. lynsay-screativity reblogged this from sharingpoetry and added:
    This is truly excellent.
  13. mutelittlebird reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  14. scrimpy reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  15. dreamingghosts reblogged this from hookedonsemiotics
  16. barefootisadora reblogged this from sharingpoetry
  17. ghostorballoon reblogged this from hookedonsemiotics and added:
    This is, of course, a pretty bad poem, but I think you’re being too broad in your definition of “fetishization of...
  18. 33journals reblogged this from sharingpoetry