From Trance Notebook #2 [nerdy questions about exact pitch]
sell me a clip-on
bow-tie or a mock
fringe chapeau worn on
the collarbone—a
new style of “shoulder
hat,” a cape to
protect your shoulders
from rain and chill and
to prevent the wearer
from sliding (like
Mickey Mantle) into
a third gender
__________
now I’ve
reached the “clinker” zone
of perforated opportunities
__________
—perforated appurtenances
____________
but then Edith Piaf
suddenly thrilled me
__________
a newly
discovered Venezuela, a
view—
____________
a rendre compte,
a liar on the corner
(thirsty corner) of
23rd and 9th, a gazelle,
a rendezvous chapel
__________
(a chaplet of
daisies around my
pleurisy brow)—
Copyright © 2014 by Wayne Koestenbaum. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on April 3, 2014. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.