Marrakesh, in an attic hotel room The woman they call 'The Hostess' Smokes cigarettes for her nervousness Takes off and folds up her dress
And diagonal sun across darkness Churning through dust to her leg Bisects between shutter and ceiling Silk of a fresh spider's web
From the siesta of Reason Come monsters of love The stillborn issue, the bulb-eyed fool Sterile and slow as the stubborn mule What mutations thresh in a kiss What perversities flourish in this Monster of love? - Guest below Black widow above
And the hostess is naked As she waits for his key in the door And her body is old as the hills And as young as forty-four From the street comes the rasp of an engine And the whiff of exhaust on the air Brief Arabic conversation Then the step of the Guest on the stair
From the siesta of Reason come monsters of love Spawn of tadpole in polythene Liberator of the hijack gene She will replenish the teeming earth And then guzzle the afterbirth This monster of love Guest below Black widow above
And the Guest has abandoned himself To a joy so intense he could die And sucking her silk between shutter and ceiling The spider releases her fly
From the siesta of Reason come monsters of love The horse-lizard, the lamb-badger The thrush-lemur, the wildcat-gazelle The crow-monkey, the bat-jaguar The dog-dromedary, the slug-whale