To the Artist's Page                     To our home page

To Ellaraine Lockie's previous piece     To Ellaraine Lockie's next piece

Old Lady Lesbian

There's leisurely time later
for lesbian love
I'm reserving the right
for old age
After natural order
lists husbands and lovers
as endangered species
Men stolen by prime time
blood clots and blown gaskets
Before I bear bones that break
or betray into a crab-like shell
Curled up question mark
with memory loss
A brain that can't claim present
While eyes, ears and taste buds
can't recall past capacity
But the body remembers
How hands transfer affection
How hugs plug 15-year-old holes
And how a hint of breath
embraces an earlobe
Touch starvation unfed
from nurses' paid pretense
Or family's guilty conscience
Forcing perfunctory pecks
on affecting cheeks
Protecting themselves as though
the condition were contagious
Fervor found again in like kind
To hell with heterosexual bigots
They can love alone in old age

To the top of this page