Sex Circumspect

by Hailey Leithauser

From under dashboards, behind swing doors,
     dusting dirt from a silk-lined skirt, she emerges
   lipstick freshed, her modest bust immaculately
  buttoned up. O never was there vestal more demure             
      than ardent, pleasing she who urges
   carnal lures with such schemed subtlety

    to keep a peek discreet; all l’amours toujours
kept under wraps and off the books, purged
      of leak or rumor, assiduously free
of exposé; the only tease or oo-la-la to be observed,
           one nylon run below the knee.

 

Hailey Leithauser’s work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Antioch Review, The Journal, Meridian, Subtropics, and Poetry. (9/2011)