The Female Matador

She came out to great applause

and stood her ground

as twin piercing horns

bore down on her

There she would spin

a red cape cutting the air

her outline gilded with gold

like the flag of Spain come alive

The crowd would gasp

while armored horses rode in

their riders spiking the backside

of the thick hide with irons

Now enraged it pressed harder

frothing in the dirt filled air

until she would pull her sword

and find the heart below

The bull then falling aground

a blood stain on the earth

and she would take the ear

as a trophy to hold aloft

Whatever ugliness may be found

remember the beauty

that she was a teenage girl

at work in a world of men