Craig Cotter



I text Davin


in Rhode Island
"Still awake?"

*

A song plays
Vietnamese noodle place

teenagers
know.

In 30 years
they’ll hear it

at a Vietnamese
noodle place

*

"No."

"Hows longhair twink
you made-up for me?"

"He is real and he is rude."

"What rude thing he do
and how nice r his
feet?"

*

Black-eyed Susans.

*

A tool
roots in sandy soil.

*

"Didn't smile at me. Small
orange shoes."

"Tennis shoes?"

*

"Oui"

"I’d make him smile.
Whats his stats?"

*

"'night."

"X X"



Your Socks


Reading
Arabian Nights ,
the sultans’harems—
one girl for each day of the year
in every palace.

I’d have a twink harem.

         They’d get educated
& when too old
good jobs running my estate.

         So I stole
a pair of your white
ankle socks.

         As you’d blacked-out
figured you wouldn’t miss them.

         *

         The Beatles
had 4 lead singers.
They could each play
6 to 10 instruments.

         Electric light
on cars in parking lot
surrounded by black iron fence.


         *

Faint scent of you
or olfactory memory?

Hold them
to my nose
one at a time

Annoyed
to smell cotton,

then you’re gone.
Then your youth is gone
if you’re lucky.

         In a dream last night I was told:

“The problem with poetry
you get the noodles
mixed with the sauce.”


         *

         Beatles fans
fill the parking lot
43 years after they broke-up.

Jerry just called
stuck on the 101.

Frank O’Hara and I enter
         the Orpheum Theatre.

Oblivion doesn’t make much sense
& neither does life.



Zuma


Four 16-year-old surfers
cross PCH from Zuma
to Trancas Market parking lot.

Mustang & 4-by-4.

Clean sand from their feet.

Drop swim trunks behind towels.

Talk about sex like we did at 16.

Say good-bye with gentle fist pumps.



Fatigue After A Long Illness


I thought you were crying last night
late
in the other room.

Didn’t have enough in me
to check.

*

This morning I asked
and you weren’t.

Just sinuses.

Dear Mr. White, by Craig Cotter

 
 
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