I was vacuuming sequins for weeks afterwards.
We'd thought her a stunner, of course, her glitzy hip-hugger
Shedding sequins like "the apotheosis of all Madams";
She snaked through the party, leaving a trail that winked at us,
Shimmery scales gleaned from some ancient other thing;
She was untouchable Eve to our rampant Adams.
The next day he told us the truth, bravely;
We were younger then, in the Seventies, than we knew.
Time to find out things weren't as they seemed.
It was a guy, he said. That gorgeous sequined she a he?
There was a serpent between her legs after all,
And it stung me hard, in a way you've scarcely dreamed.
Those snake scale sequins, how I s**ed them up, furious,
Heard them jangling in the tube, knew that later I'd find
Them sparkling in the emptied dust; and that later still
They'd be floating mocking tempting in the awakening mind.