Adultery
One night, with this guy Kyle, there was a dumping
Of snow as we walked back to my apartment.
The light fluffy deep stuff. The snow globe stuff.
The stuff from shows & movies. Here’s the thing——
We were cheating. I, on my boyfriend. He, his.
There was no traffic. Just streetlights, houselights.
& snowfall. So quiet. We whispered for blocks.
So easy to imagine ourselves isolate.
To do what we’d do. It was all our secret.
Weeks later it blew up & we all four hurt.
But that scene: the middle of the street, snow
On our shoulders, our lapels & our hair.
Our smiles. Our hushed laughter. The literal
fucking sparkle. It was worth it for that sight.
After Catullus
She might think you sophistication: drinking well
Before noon, chain-smoking all weekend long, orating
On literature, cinema, and music
That haven’t been transgressive since the ‘80s. Oh, Pygmalion!
Save this lumpen twenty-something from her podunk raising.
Don’t be upset by our eye-rolling. We’ve seen
This before. And if you hear that we’re calling you Baby Fucker,
We are. It doesn’t matter though! She calls you brilliant!, a great lover!,
So funny!, and charismatic! That you’re twice her age? Forget it!
You deserve to be served attention and applause. Do you think she’ll realize
When you look down at her damp-eyed while making love
That it’s the bourbon? Or do you count on the prowess of your cunnilingus
To distract her?
RJ Gibson lives and works in West Virginia. His poems have appeared in Court Green, Allium, Waxwing, Cortland Review and other journals. His work has appeared in the anthologies Queer Nature: A Poetry Anthology, Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality, and Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, he is the author of three chapbooks: Scavenge (winner of the Robin Becker Prize), You Could Learn a Lot, and white noise :: something, all from Seven Kitchens Press. His favorite feud is Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
