Monday, January 18, 2010

HOW MUCH SEMEN

by Jon Wesick


Cum, jizm, jungle juice
How much
          is forced into sex slaves each year?

If half the 27 million slaves worldwide
engage in prostitution,
the result would fill a supertanker.*
55 million gallons! 1.3 million barrels!

What about this ship,
long as a football field
no doubt flying a flag of convenience?
Where does it load its cargo?
Who signs the bill of lading?
What are its ports of call?
Who pockets the profits?
Who is kept awake at night
by rough seas?

Friends, what if this ship foundered offshore
coating our beaches with thick, opalescent goo
and infecting pelicans and sea lions
with syphilis, Chlamydia, and AIDS?
Would we don rubber boots and gloves
to bathe sick otters in plastic buckets?
Would we question the sea trade
or simply make an example of the captain
and pass a law mandating double hulls?

* Assuming 5 mL per ejaculation and each prostitute services 10 clients per day.


Jon Wesick has a Ph.D. in physics, has practiced Buddhism for over twenty years, and has published over a hundred poems in small press journals such as American Tanka, Anthology Magazine, The Blind Man’s Rainbow, Edgz, The Kaleidoscope Review, Limestone Circle, The Magee Park Anthology, The Publication, Pudding, Sacred Journey, San Diego Writer’s Monthly, Slipstream, Tidepools, Vortex of the Macabre, Zillah, and others. His chapbooks have won honorable mentions twice in the San Diego Book Awards.
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