Richard Hillman
WHEN TWO POETS COLLIDE
"A magnet that collects our virtues and vices . . ."
-Adam Phillips
our bodies move vertical & diagonal, testing
the soft spinal steps of marital treason, weird
midmorning interlude, post-scrotal words
recalling the vertebrae of mutual desire.
you read to me like you want to fuck me
with Gaylene's pitiful pastoral poetry
cupped like oil in your loving hands
so long as I wear a red-black hair piece
& a blue sapphire toe ring, but things
fall out & the bed slides from under us
hits the wall just as the domestic opens
the hotel room door & our sudden scramble
for words of prohibition, our bodies closing
as fast as eyes caught between two legs,
& I take the ouiji board of Gaylene's poetry
by the thin signs of the unsuccessful shredding
that preceded this stripping of the country girl, reaching
the inevitable decision to throw Gaylene off the balcony,
the necessary mercy killing, Travis wondering "why
does it always rain on me", & the people below
hit by poetry from a height, a banner flung
across Sydney's skyline POETRY WRECKS LIVES,
you return the book to its crystal red suitcase, place
Gaylene out of harm's way (as she has always been)
push me back onto the bed, somehow your tongue
not quite finished, your treacherous foot
knocks over my wine glass & red splashes
the clock radio's digitally inspired face
as you sit on mine to read luscious love poems written
for someone else, obstacles to overcome, betrayals
to be tested against the magnet of our hunger.
Email: sidewalkpoe@hotmail.com Publications: Pith, Antipodes, Prose Ax, Gay Poetry Online, etc. Editor Of: SideWaLK, a poetry & poetics journal
