by Kelly Pelton (written 03 Feb 2022)

Containment, at first glance, seems safer than confrontation;
the captivity of women on the screen means they can't hurt you.
Pornography's substitute intimacy keeps them distant,
serving you sexually as you repeatedly view

their nakedness, all feelings removed except for craving,
attraction with no attachments, no messy reality
to interfere with your carefully crafted universe,
this secret insatiable world of relationship fantasy.

"Adult entertainment" is containment, but churches
also control their women in different ways;
no confrontations occur with the utterly disempowered
who do men's bidding as men avert their gaze.

Tell me, do you make eye contact with church sisters
or only seductresses who want nothing from you but you?
And as lust illustrates, is anything more potent than desire
to make you come alive, even if the love is not true?