Town biddies mutter “Inappropriate!” but menfolk and
curious women pay them no mind. The audience is full, drinking, smoking –
bans circumvented by promises – waiting to see live that only glimpsed
in pictures.
Snake dancing fell out of favor, ages gone, but myth
cannot be fully erased. And there is always the draw of burlesque.
People trade much to view shimmying flesh, embrace carnal desire and
fantasy of touching the forbidden.
Weaving through tables,
iridescent serpents sliding over pebbled skin, I find my target. Such a
pretty boy, it saddens me to ruin him, but we are all so very hungry.
