Saturday, May 25, 2024

Get a grip (April 2014)

  

She told me

On the company phone

To grip it tightly

And take it

To the men’s room

On the third floor,

And with my head

Filled with images of her

I comply,

Trying not to stroke it

Too hard

Until I reach

The privacy of the stall,

Exposed even when

Unexposed

The thin metal walls

And pathetic latch

Between me

And the parade of men

Coming and going,

Leaving their pee

In an unflushed toilet,

While I do what

She told me to do,

Feeling it grow

With each stroke

Of the palm of my hand,

Gripping it

As if scared it might

Slip away

Between the strokes

Up and down,

If not in and out,

All the with memory

Of her face,

Her mouth,

Her lips

Her hips

In my head,

An indelible portrait

That made it all

Possible,

And now,

Even two years later

In a much more

Private space,

I have repeated

This ritual

So many times,

I can’t imagine

Doing it any other way

Or with any other

Picture in my mind,

A secret I keep

Telling no one,

Least of all her.

 

 


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