Monday, May 23
A STEP PAST DISCO
I took a step
past disco.
Could still
discern
the strings,
the horn
like a burn
slow to heal.
Infectious,
the hook
already
curled
in the body
like a comma,
or a buddy.
I took.
I clicked/
unclicked,
hope
a velvet rope.
Disco:
Lyrics
either
for just
one night
or love
for life---
no in between.
The drama.
I am
between,
young enough
not to have
lost
all my friends,
old enough
to have felt
(I feel)
any moment
the ferryman
will visit.
Rock
the boat,
don't rock
the boat.
Disco,
I took a step.
It's been
years.
Of forcing
functions,
token
liberation,
coercing
conjunctions,
and stroking
myself,
the celluloid
dead
my valuation.
A void.
Men come,
disposable
as thumbs,
opposable
as income.
The ones
I met
a data set
of none.
Nay, nay,
Fluffy,
they used
to say.
Who are
they?
Crooked
lashes, side-eye
like a dash---
broken
wishes---
the dance,
the outline,
of religion,
and splashes
of Jean Naté
choking the air.
Fragments,
like errors,
the distance.
(Randall Mann)