The women caress their own bodies
gesturing meaningfully at traffic lights
in anesthetic evenings.
Scrutinizing gazes and alluring curves
culminate in greedy negotiations
Continuing the ancient business.
Men mingle rusted numbers of rosy fairy tales
Measuring truth and lies
about those earthen goddesses-
embodying the inscrutable enigma etched in antiquity.
Thus they survive on sugarcoated myths
meandering in oblivious labyrinths
in enchanted despair.