rincon texting my best friend

(March 2022. For Billy. In Rincon I was up late texting Billy and missing him. I read his most recent poetry collection, and as usual was super impressed with how brilliant my best friend’s poetry is, and how different it is from mine. I wrote this for him in my phone notes that night. It’s silly, raunchy, and not very good, but it’s full of love for my best friend.)

reading you i wish i could write like you
billy—
flabbercock! bajeez! i’ll be scrooted!
bah gawd i’ll never
let you away from me and my tired
eyes once sharp like carrots.

once upon a time i licked your cheek
once upon a time your dad said
that kid is weird i don’t want him over anymore
and he was right.

god, how noble our mothers,
bastards that we are, brilliant and wicked
ruining school buses for decades
dedicated to creating a world our mothers could never imagine
thanks to them.
their genius sons sloshed in taunton power plant runoff,
the pride of swansea both bum artists now? broke?
who’s going to pay for the retirement they deserve?
cross our fingers for danny and ellen
the cunts

i’m trying so hard not to be too serious
because you seem to hit your most serious strides precisely when you’re not trying
IS HE SERIOUS? A STEEL CHAIR?
FROM THE TOP OF THE CELL?
and i will eat this steel cage like spaghetti
if it stops me sticking it where i please
oh how undignified! oh heavens to betsy!

is the solution to asexual erasure to be like
hey guys just so you know
this guy DOESNT FUCK
question mark?
idk it seems lucky that doesn’t happen.
lucky for all of us, i mean.
i don’t wanna hear that shit.

i wanna listen to the coquis
and the roosters and my best friend
and write better poetry
and rest my tired eyes
no longer sharp as carrots