Black Market Love
by Taisha Destin
Let me break it down like this
He was a lean, clean charming machine
Ladies you know what I mean
From the way he talked to the style of his walk
He stood tall as if he ruled the campus, I mean world
I was nothing more than the unsuspecting girl
Back then I saw myself as a woman, incapable of temptation
Resistant to the salivation
That dripped from his very deceiving lips
That spewed the lies that lied on tip
Of his tongue
I was so young
His kind eyes were tainted
Reality had painted
A portrait of death and despair
Yes life is unfair
From his father he learned the sweet, sweet sin that is infidelity
In the forbidden pull of my hair
In the thick cloud of guilt that filled the air
He had a slice of a fantasy
This thing was bigger than me
It was bigger than us because when he said love
He hid from it, no he retracted it, no he took it back, no he was afraid
Of being illegally laid
And falling in black market love
That same love became my drug
I needed it in my veins
I needed it to be sane
I wanted to be high off it
I wanted it to envelope every inch of my black skin until I became one with it
But I was merely an instrument in an act of greed
The fine print I didn’t read
I was the succulent entree
the double entendre
Then one day I woke
Something inside me spoke
Like the feeling you get when something ain’t right
It turns your stomach into knots and makes your chest tight
So I left him
With the sorrow and despair
The guilt ridden air
Of black market love
But I looked back once, ok twice
Maybe three times would suffice
I loved from the sideline
Because his fantasy became mine
