BoySlut

The Noise

 

I like the music here

though the man behind the counter

fondles the handle of his knife

whenever I ogle his smoking, pregnant

Ukrainian wife.

But that other man –

it is like a tarantula

dancing on the scrotum,

or smaller spiders

flitting along the eyelids,

depositing eggs amongst the lashes,

the “tink, tink, tink”

of his computer game.

That is what the noise

is to me, that is why

I look at him this way.

 

Angel Food

I ate a heaping angel food cake

fresh from the Chinese baker.

Steaming, sweet and blonde

I thought of you.

 

 

Children Mock Me

 

After I broke up with L

I moved to a hotel in Chinatown,

a 9×12 room, with a kitchen

and two bathrooms on every floor.

There’s a nursery school playground

on a roof across from my window.

Every day the kids wake me up

and I practice the guitar for an hour or so.

 

One morning I was playing and singing

and I heard “la,la,la,la,la!”

I opened the curtains

and there were 10 or 15 toddlers

staring at my room and laughing.

I didn’t know they could hear me.

Because of the low rent

I’m stuck in that little room.

L wanted kids and I didn’t.

I got them anyhow.