Villainous Little
Darling
by Lucrezia

I flounce into my bedroom from the rain
Slushing in my shoes,
My long curls heavy and wet,
My veins thrilled by thunder,
And once there strip down to tea-stained linen.

I lay on my bed, delectable and ambitious
A Princess of Tramps looking like a rag doll dropped in a puddle
Until my phantom appears, and then I sit up.

He’s a dapper old gentleman and I give him sly looks
Through predatory eyes
While he plays for me a song of ending, elegant Paris afternoons
Upon his splintered violin
Notes thinly voluptuous
Until each of the brittle strings have broken.

He comes to sit beside me then,
His black dinner jacket is dusty
With the pollen of withered bouquets

And the ashes of a much-read billet-doux.
I let him wring the water from my curls
With his long, gentle fingers
As he tells me of the nights
When he was a dandy and a rake
And ruined pretty girls like me.

"But that time is gone and I will atone for
All my past cruelties with kindness to you"
I laugh and look at his gaunt face
Still handsome, but lined with marks of indulgences
"Villainous little darling," he chides me
And I very much want him to kiss my mouth.

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