Sex is Not Like Tea

Sex is not like tea,
no matter how convenient it may be
to explain the manners requested
in matters of sexual conquest.
They say that sex is given
to those who are unwilling,
the truth is closer to this,
that it is taken by the selfish.

To talk of tea is intellectual,
appealing to the higher self,
sadly this is not the vehicle
when liberties are roughly taken.
Power or boredom, neither are drivers
for drinking or giving the tea beverage.
Instead look to the salacious alcohol,
loosening the bindings of the conscious.

Sex is more like booze,
taken from the unwilling.
A demon addiction unbidden
releasing restraints of sanity.
Consider the paths traveled
by the seekers of touch erotic.
They will give up partnerships
and leave their lives shattered.

Sex is not like tea,
it would be nice if it could be,
but humans are broken in a way
that the beverage cannot explain.
Be wary teachers by analogy,
sex is like sex, powerful yet vicious,
more like booze unleashed
upon the attacker and the victim.

© 2015. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved. 20150520.

Rockstar Dinosaur Pirate Princess posted a blog that put forth a metaphor for sexual consent (http://rockstardinosaurpirateprincess.com/2015/03/02/consent-not-actually-that-complicated/). The material has since been turned into a video. Good stuff in that it presented consent in a context of tea. It spoke to me, but I felt like something was missing. I wrote the poem “Sex is Not Like Tea”. I showed it to a person who had been the victim of non-consensual sex. They said that the tea metaphor was not enough. They also said that my poem did not say enough about the selfish brutality of non-consensual sex. So, with the knowledge that I don't do the subject full justice, here is “Sex is Not Like Tea”.