Interior of a House in the Yoshiwara, by Margaret Wack

Interior of a Brothel in Yoshiwara, by Katsushika Hokusai (Japan), est. 1811.

Interior of a House in the Yoshiwara

My face is drawn a hundred times the same –
the same slant eyes, the brow as light and
insubstantial as a moth, the lips like blood,
a hundred of us, glowing sisterhood,
we scratch and squabble for the same prize.

It is an eternal art, our heart-shaped faces
and the way we make them smile, a thing
so practiced it consumes the soul. My lovers
flash and are gone in an instant like lightening
bugs in the thick of August. I remain.

Margaret Wack

Margaret Wack has been previously published in Strange Horizons, Liminality, and Twisted Moon, among others. More can be found at margaretwack.com.