You were programmed to believe
it’s not easy
killing a man with your bare hands:
they will fight with everything to live.

Shanelle, however, begs to be strangled
to help her orgasm
to help her release
to help keep her moving

farther from

    and closer to her nothingness.

You decide on a safeword,
she takes the money.
And it turns out to be too easy, after all,
to kill with your hands,
as she goes limp within your grasp.

Knowing you went too far,
you decide to go further–
decide to release
decide to keep moving
as you are closing in on nothingness

As you explode on her still lips,
you mumble the predetermined safeword:
“Arizona.”
and like a cowboy,
realizing silence is better than speech,
pull on your blue jeans,
light up a smoke,
and as you listen to the slam of the motel door,
shake your head at what this world has become.

M. Henault