To Weep or Not to Weep

Femystique ®

By: Moira Egan

Our eyes lock in confession. Can it be
the truth? We former horn-dogs, floozies, tramps;
[much] (dated:) scarlet women, tarts, hussies,
old-school sluts, harlots, trollops — we strumpets,
can't seem to get it up. What's happened here?

O fucking menopause. O for a muse
of estrogen. You've left us stranded, dear,
upon the shore of oistros-lessness. Who
would have guessed? Oistros as in gadfly
(its roots, to goad or spike, ah yes) and frenzy
(O.F.: frenesie: from the Greek, phren, mind).
O for a muse of silm, of slick and plenty.

I like the sleek pink tube and Sixties font,
its promise to swap (noun) want for (verb) want.

Moira Egan is the author of Hot Flash Sonnets (Passager Books, Baltimore, 2013). Her previous poetry collections are Cleave (WWPH, 2004); La Seta della Cravatta/The Silk of the Tie (Edizioni l’Obliquo, 2008); Bar Napkin Sonnets (The Ledge, 2009); and Spin (Entasis Press, 2010, for whom she also co-edited Hot Sonnets, 2010).

Read more Hot Flash sonnets and her wonderful guest post on Friend for the Ride: Encouraging Words for the Menopause and Midlife Roller Coaster.