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.