She Calls Me Papi

(submitted as part of a trilogy for the Zodiac Love competition)

She calls me Papi

Ssssh ....Crack  
Sssssshhhh ....Crack!
Sssssssshhhhh...CRACK!

If this motherfucker cracks that whip on my ear one more time  
I'm gonna make him eat it
Then eat him

"Up Leo!"  
Ssssh Crack!  
"Up I say!"

Yeah yeah I know the routine
You say up
I go up
You say down  
I go down  

I know something else too
Today is not the day to try that your head in my mouth shit
Otherwise I'll give these hillbillies the show they really paid to see

How in the fuck did I get here anyway?
Which one of those incestuous Greek bastards did I piss off that badly

Zeus? He needs to learn to keep his cock in his pants
Or wear a condom
Mars? He's too busy setting the world on fire just to get a hard on
Hades? The devil himself, spends half the year with his hand up
his niece's skirt

Legend has it twas Venus that damned my kind
Now I'm stuck with this asshole in his two sizes too big ballon pants  
and two sizes too small pith helmet
Playing Lord of the Beasts,  
The Great African Hunter

Hunter my ass
He tried eBay then Craigslists to get me
And finally found this link

http://bigcatrescue.org/buy-a-big-cat/

I am demonized
And demoralized
Then held as a Demi God

I am lacerated
Then left to languish
Then lionized when men like him need to find some balls

Shows over
Applause  
Go home  
Fuck you very much folks

Forget that sign,  
By all means, Do Feed the Animals

If he really wanted to give me a treat
Then let me eat
That marsh mellowed faced kid
overstuffed with hotdogs and cotton candy
sitting in the third row

I retreat to my cage

Then she walks in
My Rhiann

She doesnt call me by my clown name
I'm her "Papi"  
She comes to care for me
Brings me water
Feeds my body as well as my broken soul

Today she has a rose in her hair
My beauty, a  Bronx born boriqua  
Runaway to join the circus

Her skin is caramelized like mine
Both robbed of the joy of the sun by those who would tame us
Marginalize us

"Aqua?" Rhiann asks of me
She lets me lap it from her hand  
My tongue is rough
But I am gentle with her  
She trusts me  
Let's me rest the weight of my deflated existence upon her

"Venga aqui Papi"
She wants me to move my head so she can tend my wounds  
inflicted by his whip

Aqui Rhiann?
I eagerly move to the rhythms of her request
I let her feel the weight and thunder of my heart as I lie there
I can hear hers too
She is a doe

Venus is pissed off
So we are star crossed  

I am both king and slave
Shackled and barred
Only knowing whispers of her love

"Te amo mucho Papi", she coos  
I slumber

There's a matinee tomorrow
The show doesn't have to go on
It just does