boy with crush
boy with crush by richard siken
has crush on boy
boy with crush
is crushed by 10,000 tons of fine, soft dirt
every time crushed on boy
looks my way
Sorry to my ex:
I could not listen
to all that goddamned
lesbian music, any longer.
I transitioned
not from woman to man
but from dyke to fag.
I was butch, believe it or not,
and all it took was a little mustache
to bring out the Nancy in me.
Farewell, Dyke Nites.
I know I am still welcome
but I am tired of asking all the
straight cis dudes in the men’s room
if they’d hide me in their basements
should things get that bad.
Hats off to my dyke ex, that rascal poet.
May she find someone more financially responsible,
someone less like an umbrella in a designer cocktail,
someone more like really good, warm, girlfriend bread.
May I find someone as good
at topping me as she was
because, lord help me, my soulmate is a brat.
What F*ggots Have
Chen Chen says his eternal subjects
are mortality and faggotry and that reminds me
Of a teen writer
who introduced herself at a reading
as "a poet who writes about love & death"
& some of the parent-y folks laughed
in that condescending way
hmm hmm hmm… but what else is there?
I am trying to think of a subject for a poem
that isn't about one or the other
hate is linked to love quite directly
…sushi? love or hate or indifference
(which is love's true opposite)
or maybe love can have many opposites?
I'm sorry
Sex is about mortality
politics? mortality and love,
except, well,
fascism is a death cult
so every poem by a fascist
gets shredded under mortality
it's the code, it's cracked, you can keep trying
but someday you will die
and I hope you die loved
my boyfriend had me try real sushi
and I thought I hated seaweed
but I cleared the plate even after
he got a tummy ache at the start of dinner
I hope you get to have
big appetite love
mortality is about life life poems love
crunchy chili mouth bite love
I hope you get to have
what faggots have.
