Poem from LSfP I read at Trace 3-3-09

I Like to See Men Kiss


I like to see men kiss:
mouth to mouth, tongue to tongue,
comradely, yet personal,
tenderly like lesbian lovers.
It makes me feel good—
vicariously I suppose:
a big sigh of relief,
as if everything could be
all right with the world,
instead of feeling the inevitable doom
I feel when a woman,
telling me how
her husband hit her
on the head with a pistol
and the blood spurted out
and she had to have fourteen stitches
and she’s never been the same
and she can’t remember
sometimes, can’t think clearly,
has migraines and cries
for no reason,
when she says,
“And then I thought
to myself, ‘This is
what I get for being
so nice to you
and staying married to you
for nine years
and giving you two children?’”
You see, he had been sent
to Vietnam,
and after that he was never the same.
And in July he shot his girlfriend,
and then he shot himself.