Various Voices Saying Similar Things
I met a girl, we climbed through broken windows, we saw the dim blue light that heralded the start of a new day, we drank vodka until she said “I can’t see, I’m blind”, we promised each other things, I borrowed her shoes once and it didn’t change the way I danced in the way that I thought it would, but eventually we didn’t have anything left to say to one another.
I met a boy, we whispered to each other in the corners of rooms at parties, we invented a new way of holding hands, I was genuinely stupefied at how beautiful he was, especially underneath his ribs and before his stomach muscles, the concave part, I slept there for many nights and we made love and then it was over and it was somebody else silently worshipping that part my grandmother called the salt cellar.
I met a man, he bought me a pair of yellow leather gloves, he just wanted to watch me while I walked around the room, he said “Pretend you’re alone”, and his eyes were nearly black. I undressed and put a Spanish soap opera on mute and drank all the miniatures from the minibar and scratched my left foot with my right and I didn’t have to pretend, if you know what I mean, so it was easy to stay, and yes, I admit, I stayed there with this man and the silverfish that ran between the bathroom tiles. And now I think it’s just possible I imagined him, I think I was alone from the beginning, because he isn’t here now and I couldn’t tell you when I last saw him and now I am old.
