Semi-see-through tights
might need to be eliminated
from your leg repertoire
if you hope to get into the opera without paying.
In this theater, fishnet stockings
are replaced with fish hooks
in certain rows.
In other rows,
the director is aiming
to create his own mermaid bodies.
Posed bodices
and postulates pointed
right at your light.
Imagine your child in the dunk tank,
waiting to be knocked down
and swim back up.
Imagine all of the apples meant
to be bobbed,
being eaten by a random circus performer
named Bob
and then being spat
into confessional booths,
core after core split into pieces.
Every fake priest is a little girl’s dad,
showing and telling her
what she should or shouldn’t do
while he peels her skin off.