*pavlov's Dog Poem by A Waltz For Zizi

I hold her breath
in my mouth
and wait for her
to gasp

to put her lips
on mine
to fill her lungs
with air

again and again,
and again
until she develops a habit
of wanting

my mouth oh hers
more than
just the need of sucking air
through my lips.

I let her get used
to it
a couple of weeks
until I'm certain

she fell in love with me
until she
tells me she fell in love
with me.

Then I hit her, hard
over the mouth
whenever she pushes her tongue
into my mouth

until eventually my presence
makes her
coil like a rattlesnake, when I come home.
Then she'll buy

a cheap blue suitcase
with dots
on one side, and stripes
on the other

for whatever she has left to take
and disappear
while I'll be busy writing
to Alma
a muse I know

from a friend's poems.