No Exchange of Livestock

It took me fifty years

and countless attempts

to have normal sex.

No booze, no sedatives, no chemical euphoria,

no alcoholic black-out.

No disassociating. No nearly dead drunk.

No "Can't remember" or if I ever said "No," or "Stop."

No broken marriages. No betrayal, no danger.

No despair, no fixed silence. No blood. No infection.

No lying, no secrets, no night terrors.

No choking or gagging, no warnings, no threats.

No suffication.

No brothel. No money. No blood feud.

No exchange of livestock, no force.

No genital mutilation. No child brides. No angry God.

No gang rape.

No dawn to dusk curfew. No chattel. No vessel.

No choice. No chance.

And where was God?

They say God saved the few he could.

The rest, however, he kept.