//the banalities of love//
the fan app
on her ipad
(which you need
to sleep well
at her place)
hums
from its perch
on her nightstand.
do candles
throw shadows – –
or do they
bleed light?
you absentmindedly
ask yourself
lightly
tracing your fingertips
over her stomach
up river
across
the sternum.
want me
to get those?
please
do.
you pluck
two curly black hairs
from her nipple.
i’m going to try
not to be
embarrassed by that,
she says.
you don’t
say anything.
you just
slide your arm
around her back.
and pull her
close.
//a lover’s indiscretions//
behind the heart
like a landfill.
come the
rats
the
crows
come the
rain
the stench
the alchemy of guilt
spun out into
neurotic suspicion:
wasn’t
the ky jelly
on that other shelf
last night? it wasn’t
that low
was it?
welcome
hell.
//an old shark blows down the heat off his coffee//
watching the young girls learning to hula hoop
at the downtown elementary school across the street.
already
they are dressed like women
carry themselves
like women. soon enough
as the moon turns solstice
one of them will give her heart to a man
raw naked and final
a body
over a cliff.
he will not realize
or appreciate
the gift.
