My Sustenance

My name is Aphrodite and my offering to man is fierce love. I spread it out before you like a lavish bridegroom’s dinner with foods named aphrodisiacs rightly after me! Caviar, oysters and shrimp; spears of warmed asparagus and artichokes stripped of leaves to dip in luscious butter; truffles too with fragrant muskiness; all foods of succulence - to stimulate your appetite. My tender lips are moist - champagne to further whet desire. You drink me in. . . Entreating you to take your fill, I whisper in your ear, “Partake of me, my love. Take more and more.” When your feeding frenzy is at its peak - that’s when I offer you - dripping from my fingers - sweetest fruit: honeyed figs with cream, peaches, plums, and kumquats; and last: one red well-ripened berry. Utterly sated, drunk from delectation; motionless, you lie there on your bed. And when your eyes move rapidly beneath their heavy lids, I slide my body carefully off yours, slip back into my gossamer-thread gown, then tiptoe to the door; turn the knob; and without looking back, step into night. You waken and want to feast again but find that I have parted. (to banquets such as mine, one rarely is invited more than once). And so you live and love, knowing that you can’t resume - ever in your life again - a coupling so completely gratifying. Your passion was consumed in your consuming of this goddess! I take from men again . . .again. . . and then again. But the nourishment that I require always must be fresh, and that is what eternally sustains me. For Deb's Contest: category Unreal