Bedroom Games

by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Sunday 9th May 2010 5:14 pm

Bedroom Games

stinging whip

heel in the back

smarting slap

twist of bonds

linked collar

paddle smacking

set mouth

bored sigh

eyes empty

withering thought

fantasy drowning

pleasure denied

III

waking,

she thought to find

in the smoky gloom

her friend;

but when she touched his damp cheek

he asked, ‘are we still in our roles?’

his shuddering breath betrayed

the cold question.

‘yes,’ she answered kindly, ‘we are.’

Oh … Oh!

cruel light

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Comments

<Deleted User> (8243)

Mon 17th May 2010 20:30

Firstly, thank you for your comments on my poems. I enjoyed them very much and I really like the interaction this site provides, especially towards a new member like me.

This is my first exposure to your work and I almost done myself a mischief after the first verse! Mama Mia! After that you really get the sense of anti climax, disappointment and awkwardness. The final verse just tails off just as many of these encounters tend to.... or so I'm told.

Cate Greenlees

Wed 12th May 2010 11:08

Like Isobel I find this intriguing Cynthia..... I think you sometimes write poems like this to keep us on our mettle and keep the old grey matter exercised! Im going for the fantasy theory verses the cold light of day... either way I liked the format!
Cate xx

Andy N

Mon 10th May 2010 08:20

knowing you, cynthia - the idea behind this could be taken about four different ways - lol.. but it's certainly interesting and quite different from your other stuff (well some off it).

if i am honest - i am not wild about the last two lines 'oh, oh / cruel light' as possibly cutting it off before that may make it sharper and to the point (lol) x

<Deleted User> (7904)

Sun 9th May 2010 18:21

I like the layout of the poem - the hesitancy and repetition, the sense of things being linked but not connected - which ties in to the failure to make a connection the poem is about. Something I'm not sure about is the anachronistic quality of some of the lines, which almost seem to me like translations of another work which have been sampled into this poem. I don't think they take anything away from the poem but I'm not sure what they add.

Overall I do like it though, and the central exchange of the last verse - the woman made to take the dominant part (I assume) answering 'kindly' that they're still 'in role' even though she doesn't like it - has a great deal of depth and says a lot about both fetishy relationships and more supposedly 'normal' ones.

Isobel

Sun 9th May 2010 17:28

I'm intrigued by this one Cynthia. The title led me to think it was about fun in the bedroom but I think you were misleading us. Is it about sexual relationships dying, boredom and servitude of a different nature setting in? Twisting bonds could be read two ways I guess...
Alternatively it could be about a sex game gone wrong LOL
Am also intrigued by the lay out. It looks something like a snake or sperm. Don't worry about coming back to me. I shall read with interest what others make of it.

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Bedroom Games

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