I want my name to amount to more
than a bone passed between two dogs. I don’t
want catheters or shrink wrap or any more ceremonies
of fists. I want each rib in my body
to hold the shadow
of a lion. I don’t want strychnine. I don’t want
to be the peel on the orange. I want things
to get a little sloppy.
Let’s make Ouija into a drinking game,
play strip Trust Fall. Let’s not be knockout
pills. I’d like to pass a cherry seed
back and forth with our tongues
but I don’t want the anxiety attack after. I’ll keep
the three orgasms
during. I’ll keep the night
we were thunder gods, the night I learned
the moon has no light of its own,
I’ll keep unbuttoning my shirt
one button too many, I’ll keep the feeling
of being on two planets at once
but mostly on the one where you are
melting butter in a pan, where popcorn
is popping and there is rose wine on the table,
which is the same planet on which, in sixth grade,
Marcus told me he prefers shoe shopping
to football, and I told him,
That’s exactly why everyone assumes you’re gay.
I don’t want the electrons that left his face
and landed in my backpack. I don’t want meanness
to bobsled my brain. When I open, I want to be
the umbrella, not the pocketknife.
—————
The End
And that’s the End of the Poem
© Poetry Monster, 2021.
Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry.
Poetry Monster — the multilingual library of poetic works. Here you’ll find original poems, poetry translations, ancient verses, ballads and even folk tales.
Poetry Monster (or even The Poetry Monster) — is also an international multilingual community of poets and poetry connoisseurs. Join us:
Some external links: The Bat’s Poetry Cave. — Fledermaus’s poetry site. Talking Writing Monster. — the irreverent and irrelevant chatter on subjects both serious and not quite. A free for all board. You can scribble anything on it without registration (but it doesn’t let spammers in). You can even post your poems. Qwant.com. — a search engine from France. It’s an alternative because there are a few alternatives, like Bing, Duckduckgo, and Ecosia. And there is Yandex, the ultimate language-oriented search engine for the Russophone world. Commercial Links: Russian Commerce – the foreign trade assistance agency Other links: Poems and poetry in Russian (if you are reading this in English, as you obviously are, then you’d have to switch the language, the language switch is on the menu. More on languages)
