Sleeping with Sappho
Stephen Vincent
12.
]
]
]
]thoughtless
]her sandals
]
]double-knotted
]
]
21.
]
]
]charitable
]flush
]
]fresh
skin, youth
]open
]quick
]
]
]repellant
]without
song
]flowerless
]
Crimson bougainvillea outside the garden
]rarely
]
24.A
]
]in old age
]she forgets
some things
]
]terrible
]
]gone
]
30.
]noon
Guys
Morning to night
Refuse to take a look
Even with the lupine bushes in our hair
And the occasional slap you give me on the butt
We should take to a room and fall asleep
Or wrap our arms around old men drunk
Already fast asleep on the City’s benches
]
If there is a bird in anybody’s pants
It’s lost its beak.
33.
Why not you, Eleanor,
Fresh oysters, ready to shuck.
38.
]
]
Chill me
52.
Shameless, I embrace the tree
Thick woven, fuzzy, red bark.
53.
thorns in their palms, graceless, torn
I have turned her away
54.
]
Up from hell with a tiny black purse
]
]
55.
]
Wisteria breathes
Against my face
You will come my way
One breath at a time.
]
]
56.
What city boy knocks you on your ass
His buckle half way down to his knees
Sure that your dress will rise higher
Than your knees?
59.
]
]
new losses
bitter
60.
Blew it
For what?
64.
Pussy?
Forget it absolutely
No cats
A
goat,
well, the goat!
67.
Yes
Those
Less
Gone
More sorrow.
69.
]
]rapturous
]
71.
]not you, Stephanie
]no permission from here
]you hate displeasure
]love burns
]antiphonal
]mint bitter yodel
]cuts the blank air
]a dark blue pond
calls you
72.
Eleanor
Stay the fuck
Away from Attica:
Bloated gutters, scratch
Filled songs, blistered voices,
No women, the absence of wind,
The death of rain, whiplash
In the front seat, the demolition derby
Wet circuits
Dry exits
Stay away.
74.
]
]
]Jennifer
]foul, lust lacquered phrases
]retreat
]let go
]be gone
]
]dry
75.
Desperate
Let go
Shout
76.
Futile but
Retrieve
The white shirt.
78.
]
]resist
]simultaneous
]leisure
]go dark
Emerge red
Slowly
79.
]
]
the same curl,
blue
]
]
80.
Not everyone
Her feet
The ripple
In her toes.
82.
]get hot
]not too quickly
]
Let the lavender lilies fall from your hair
Cut and break the white fennel bulb into pieces
Let me tell you, blind, I follow each of your traces:
Beauty in darkness, charms.
83.
Diana is more crumpled looking than Georgia.
84.
“Something else”
Genuinely smart
Close to the heart
Her shape hardly matters.
85.
Over there
It was yesterday
And for nothing.
87.
A young, very young, chick.
88.
]loud
]with your little axe
]Charles
]open my heart
]finger each and every louver
]stop at nothing
]strip the sky
]velvet
89.
Hot bust
The dip, the little arcs,
Some say
A man.
90.
]
]calm
]navel
]
]
91.
]
]gutless
92.
]
]
]a baby
]
]
]
]
93.
]
]prince
]
94.
]
]
]for her
]slightly clawed
]an albino
]
]fawn
]
96.
Alli, you are so good willed,
I am afraid to touch you.
99.
]
]
]
]
…hat
the thin
blue band
]
over there
green sky
smoking
underskirt
her initial X
black no blue
a diamond
in the navel
silver sparks.
100.
Boys, girls
What’s the difference?
101.
]
]
She has
No boys.
150.
]
Brandy heirloom tomatoes, the juices
]
]
151.
Cynthia & Cato were robbed by friendship.
152.
Not enough, never, N’s cupidity
so senseless.
153.
She’s one of those who can’t get
enough.
Listen to her lament.
154.
To change the river, toss a pebble.
155.
Let me have at her, and the nectarine, too.
156.
No one will read this ever, well, not ever.
157.
So much of you & I
Will be forgotten.
Bet on it.
158.
Broke and sanctimonious is rarely good.
Yet wealth and virtue – is it always interesting?
159.
All day long, amazing, this erection!
160.
During the afternoon
It’s sometimes more quick
Yet – whatever it is – elevates us.
161.
]it is always extraordinary
that ecstasy should overtake and please us.
162.
Right in the throat, night or day,
this white ball, luminous, spinning:
163.
Under morning foot
The rising arch:
White, a bead of sperm, separated.
164.
[The simplicity in a certain red
165.
]older woman, malevolent, her sound
166.
Mars a moment, then behind the cloud,
Illuminated, then not, the quality of despair.
167.
When the sun rose – all rays –
We walked into it, ablaze.
168.
A short, sustained hello to Julia, bubbling,
Gloria’s child.
169.
Get going. Your age and wrinkles offer me nothing.
170.
]
]
Not as compelling as a harmonica in a riff,
silver, rather than gold.
171.
]
you break the strings on my guitar
]
]
thin brass shavings, everywhere.
172.
Bad boy dusk
173.
To take in your svelte tongue:
fluttering.
174.
With love animated under the heart,
swelling sorrow.
175.
Not I, not hate, no companions, please.
176.
Not I, nor your henchmen,
Elizabeth
177.
Forget her, guys,
let her fold, hang out to dry
in a perfectly small City.
178.
Nothing right for her enemies:
Her voice off register.
179.
]
]
With no hands
]
180.
Why are you such a bitch?
181.
]
between whose hands?
182.
Your ex?
183.
Singularly, he rejects each son.
184.
]
which woman is not?
185.
Catherine says Theona threw out the jet black,
ruby ring
Once given to her by her late father.
186.
A black glint on a thin silver, crescent blade.
187.
Transparent amber olive oil in a porcelain
dish:
Inside, a thin black streak, coiled.
188.
Out, Catherine.
189.
Against who, I am forbidden to name.
190.
Who hates her husband more than her parents.
191.
Mars gone
and the gray cloud cover
Early morning, no sun,
together, over the pillow.
192.
]
]
Bruised, treated
without respect
]
]neighborhood
]a brown patch in the bougainvillea.
]
193.
Fallen, unable to part
194.
Funeral leftovers
195.
Leda, certainly
196.
]
Divorce: alimony, booty.
197.
Eleanor
198.
Pure evil
199.
Ecstasy planter
200.
A root that rips up sidewalks
201.
Block-a-dock
202.
Crepuscule
203.
Gossamer, underwear
204.
Downtime, empty pocket
205.
Dropper
206.
Cancelled
207.
Refuses to come out
208.
Wing spread, the ascent
209.
Safe passage
210.
211.
Stephanie, again
212.
Tanya, ah, Tanya
213.
Myth breaker
214.
Ambrosia
215.
No skill, an absolute natural
216.
,
217.
Onyx, her breast cups.
