First part of the wicker of un-understanding
Ne plus ultra of asshole boyfriends
Who was trying to pull my arm
I fell heavily to sleep with jellyfish
In my stomach, there had already
Been a curious headache of nuts, deep
Decay of death & unholiness, then a high
Neighbor speakerphoning with a woman
All night. He goes BRRRRRRRRP and
DRRRRRRRRRRRRT with his mouth
When he is aroused. You know why I like you
He speakerphones on the stair. You
Notice every little thing about me.
Then in the night my friend across
The hall cried out MY FRIEND
IS DEAD & there was a commotion
& the matriarch downstairs shouted
Her men back into the house screaming
I’M LOCKING THE DOOR, THE COPS
ARE COMING. Then police and paramedics
Filled the building and their whirling red lights.
They carried the neighbor down in a chair.
I heard him talking so he wasn’t dead
In bed now in a stocking cap and a button-
Down shirt. CHEESEBURGER
IN PARADISE, it says. We wanted to be close
To each other. I wanted to feel people
Living. I wanted to live too. The gate
On the building slamming closed
I tell myself I’m sitting here unmolested
Then I remember the night J got arrested
After a bird chirped between movements
Of Mozart’s Mass in C