SUMO

She fights 

like a sumo wrestler

stripped of everything

but weight itself

She fights

rolling around in a diaper-

mawashi

contained by constraints

in a ring-

dohyō

of self approved

afflictions

She fights

hoping to meet

cheering expectations

of  society-

and its penned script

of what a woman 

should be

She fights

and curses 

the referee-

Gyoyi!

with  condesending

eyes 

she smiles,

a whole show of evil

to self

her only friend

and they agree

that this bout is fixed-

Kotei-sen

So like yokuzuna

she fights

she breathes

nose dilating air

she glares

throwing her body

to the ground

to pin her opponent down

and squeezes

her rikishi

to tears

of blood

then

as she palpitates

she asks menacingly

"Do you still love him?"

An  act of sumo

treachery

strengthening her grip

on her bleeding heart

because this gyoyi 

never counts to 3

Copyright©2021 by Camille Caliscia Patrick