Cheap Thrills

Named after a hot car
your lips
smack like a lion against the cage

partly responsible
for your Beau Brummell hands
your dad wanted a son
and your thighs
a stony fire

the man who took you
smelled of snow

your aunt's big fat boyfriend
crackling and twinkle-toed
innocent

in your black gym shorts
you shimmer
and give yourself to my mouth

full to the brim
you come crashing
out of the top of my head

Moat

Love the size of a castle moat
I spit in my hand
somebody's eye has fallen

she's wearing nothing to bed
pretending to be hungry and iced
a bird in sludge
grabs a pipe like this

my granddaughter on her first period
proud as a big palooka
I could be driving my truck
I could be soldiers
in a far away war

instead I crawl on my belly
inside a word
whose roof and walls
pin my ass to guilt

Dump Truck

Mad at your house
there on Hidalgo Street
but we were just a ball of fire
in your mother's geraniums

making love in the arroyo
did not satisfy our desires

the cops were looking
in the wrong place
we could hear them

my penis was a dump truck
oh to be a teenager again

Toni

The giant ants have drifted
into Seguin like a blue norther
and I remember sliding my finger
in  the crotch of Toni's panties
what was she?  maybe sixteen
maybe in between
I was lean

and what of the giant ants
which were looking for some sugar
like I was so long ago
they dug up Juan Seguin's grave
called him babe
made him a slave

I gotta cave
oh Toni