Sex+: “Janet Jackson’s Venus is in Aries & i know before i read her birth chart because” by m. mick powell
Janet Jackson’s Venus is in Aries & i know before i read her birth chart because
after The Velvet Rope Tour performance of Anytime, Any Place / Rope Burn (1999)
only fire knows how to singe and will do it
for the stage, surrounded by encore and black satin—
ravenous with her raven’s eye, Janet demands
the most desperate man from the audience, has him
escorted, his wrists roped, his legs spread. slow then slower
the fingersnaps, deep strums, axiomatic rainstorm stripped
for tease. she feasts on her fawn, face and fingers froze
in deviant restraint, motionless luster, while he begs,
confesses, calls upon his god for penance, pantomimes
his hips with a phantasmic wish. how wickedly she wields
this power: to make men want something she can withhold.
to make them writhe without shame, center-stage,
a violet bracelet bruising into their knotted wrists,
Janet incandescent with her inclination to kiss.
About m. mick powell
m. mick powell is a queer Black Cape Verdean femme, an artist, an Aries, and author of the chapbook threesome in the last Toyota Celica (Host Publications, 2023). Their debut full-length collection, DEAD GIRL CAMEO, is forthcoming from One World Books in Summer 2025. A professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and a 2023 Tin House Resident, mick enjoys chasing waterfalls and being in love. Keep up with them at www.mickpowellpoet.com.