BY GABRIELLE FREEMAN
When you’re 13 & U wake up with a body like
that,
your head don’t know,
but your body does.
It knows what Prince
is talking about
fuck so pretty
U &
me.
Your body knows strobes, low
lights, a slick ax,
fingertips
slipping up,
up, &
back down
strings tight, stopping here
here
here
mean sex. Yes, sex.
Every note,
sex.
& when you’re 13 & U
wake up with a body
like that,
they call it danger
& U believe
everything,
buried deep inside your
clothes designed to hide
everything.
When you’re 44 & U wake up with a body like
this,
they still call it danger
& every freaking morning U try to fight the urge
to hide
everything:
breasts, waist,
thick hips.
& then Prince comes
on the radio
& reminds U
your body beautiful
is yours,
& it’s a fine,
fine instrument.
He starts low,
slow, fingers down, fingers
up inside U,
spreads U open
like a metal zipper unzips
tooth
by tooth.
Presses his mouth
to the mic,
grabs U by your slammin’ ass
& grinds
just
like
that.
Gabrielle Freeman's first conscious memory of listening to Prince is playing "Erotic City" over and over again and finally realizing why her junior high's administration banned it from the 7th grade dance. Gabrielle's first book of poetry, When She Was Bad, will be published by Press 53 in the fall of 2016.