Perspire

She always said perspire

Never sweat

A sign of her time

When diction counted

And manners held a sacred place

Just after the war 

When the men came home

And the women left the factories

Stopped building bombers and ships

Returned to their kitchens

Bore the baby boomers

You're perspired the queen of the house told her husband

Clean up before you come to dinner

And so he did 

Drowning his male scent in the shower

His pheromones that plunged his jockstrap lover into ecstasy

Draping him with carnal euphoria

Diluted into drain water

You're perspired the queen of the house told her daughter

Change your blouse before you start your homework

And so she did 

Smelling the wetness under her arms

Remembering the daring kiss that  drained her body of its fluids and left her limp and damp

I am perspired said the queen of the house to the late evening's ambiguity 

Swaying alone on the porch swing

Deftly removing her underwear

Allowing the sweet night zephyr to seep under her cotton house frock

Wantonly caressing her moist body

Drying each salty bead of sweat with ephemeral care

As she remembered the days of shipbuilding and bombers

When the men went off to war and there were no kitchens or children to tend

©kcasady2014