One-Liner

elsa and i decided to have a vital center in a bare commissary
she with her bright full nails
swiped at my clown makeup and started eating

we were carrying on in animated pain and partially blind
her husband          by the neck
sunk in and left his fangs on the table

hey        anatole        how you like it licked at him?
it’s a classic one-liner and he rolled over        begged
stood up        very proud of having said it        

a modern day version in reverse
is now a bare-scrap incident
meant to be leader        a just time girl
stopped dancing and dusted her knees
stand forward
calmly sucked the business partner

it’s the classic one-liner
feed situation from the back of the room
luminescent fingernails in the darkness
intimations of feed me
none of this ambivalence
normal folks might have tried

the rest of the people kept on message:
when I saw her drop to her knees
she had fainted        but she hadn’t
she just said so        and winked

from Cyclone Fence (2007) reprinted after too much Proust