a woman's rhetoric
is explanatory, descriptive,
reasonable:
why dinner is late,
why the budget is tight,
why she's too tired tonight for that.
a woman's rhetoric
allows her to fling retorts,
but not begin the argument:
to preach love,
but not initiate it.
a woman's rhetoric
is slow and smooth and deep,
and relies on the hearer
to grant it power.

come here tonight,
and open a new chapter with me:
how infatuation can be simple,
how the words need not be cheapened
by the opening of the hands.
come here tonight,
to hear my voice shake a little,
and my heart beat just once out of time
as i tell you what i must:
a woman's rhetoric
is capable of telling you everything,
is capable of bringing you home.