Molly Peacock (1947-)
Have You Ever Faked an Orgasm?
1When you get nervous, it's so hard not to.
2When you're expected to come in something
3other than your ordinary way, to
4take pleasure in the new way, lost, not knowing
5how to drive it back to sureness ... where are
6the thousand thousand flowers I always pass,
7the violet flannel, then the sharpness?
8You can't, you can't ... extinguish the star
9in a burst. It goes on glowing. That head
10between your legs so long. Could it really
11want to be there? One whimpers as though ...
12then gets mad. One could smash the other's valiant head.
13"You didn't come, did you?" Naturally, he knows.
14Although I try to lie, the truth escapes me
15almost like an orgasm itself. Then the "No"
16that should crack a world, but doesn't, slips free.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Copyright 2002 Molly Peacock: Cornucopia W. W. Norton. Permission to reproduce must be obtained from the publisher.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Molly Peacock, Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems 1975-2002 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002): 181.
Publication date note: Original Love (1995)
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2004
Recent editing: 1:2004/4/14*1:2006/11/16
Rhyme: abab cddc effe ghgh
Other poems by Molly Peacock
