Love Lessons

She learnt about love
from the markings on her mother's body
and wails of agony that escaped weary lips
on nights when her father returned with staggering legs
and fermented breath.

She learnt about love
on tense family dinner tables
where the clangings of forks and plates
filled the void of riotous silence.

She learnt about love
when her mother bundled up curses and regrets
in fancy boxes and shook her buttocks
to the music of another man's bed.

Love for her
is a romance of warring hearts and broken souls
in hellish havens of unspirited devotion,
finding comfort in the masculine arms of strangers.

Ask of her today,
you will see her walking the streets
with divorced thighs, virgin fingers
and a ballooned belly.