Your sickness made me a little sick, it's true—I still feel it Mayakovsky got down on his knees and declared his love to his last mistress a few hours after he'd met her Remember me at the hotel in Paris, on my knees in the lift? We're all the same men of too much passion and a little talent— some a little more than others We fool ourselves into thinking we're strong then complain the rest of our lives crippled by the consequences
This poem previously appeared in the New Yorker. Barry Gifford is the author of Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels and many other books. For further information please visit his website at www.barrygifford.com.