“you know,” she said, “you were at
the bar so you didn’t see
but I danced with this guy.
we danced and we danced
close.
but I didn’t go home with him
because he knew I was with
you.”
“thanks a bunch,” I
said.
she was always thinking of sex.
she carried it around with her
like something in a paper
bag.
such energy.
she never forgot.
she stared at every man available
in morning cafes
over bacon and eggs
or later
over a noon sandwich or
a steak dinner.
“I’ve modeled myself after
Marilyn Monroe,” she told
me.
“she’s always running off
to some local disco to dance
with a baboon,” a friend once told
me, “I’m amazed that you’ve
stood for it as long as you have.”
she’d vanish at race tracks
then come back and say,
“three men offered to buy me
a drink.”
or I’d lose her in the parking
lot and I’d look up and she’d
be walking along with a strange man.
“well, he came from this direction
and I came from that and we
kind of walked together. I
didn’t want to hurt his
feelings.”
she said that I was a very
jealous man.
one day she just
fell down
inside of her sexual organs
and vanished.
it was like an alarm clock
dropping into the
Grand Canyon.
it banged and rattled and
rang and rang
but I could no longer
see or hear it.
I’m feeling much better
now.
I’ve taken up tap-dancing
and I wear a black felt
hat pulled down low
over my right
eye.