USING UP THE BOYS
the boys weren’t promising
weren’t courtly didn’t clean up well
their lithe nonchalance at halftime
was unsustainable in any official capacity
when they were with us
they were too embarrassed to get the door
too uncertain to pay a compliment
or smooth our hair with elegant calloused hands
we lived in the country where mixed messages
bottlenecked between front cortex and bright nerves
I filled out forms and got the summer job
spending hours at the register studying them
plotting like a diabolical orchid
to drink their sadness
lap it from cheek hollows
sip from clavicles
drink like a cut flower
waist deep in freshwater
THERE HE IS, LOUNGING IN MY CHEST
thirsty though rainwet
forever no age
gorgeous
in menswear designed
for the end of the world
pale blue sequined shirt
navy high waisted
sequined pants-
as GQ said, how else are
we supposed to live?
how could I have been
so tranquilized?
when the devil himself
was there all along
pushing his hair back
to make real eye contact
Laura Cronk, is a poet and essayist and is the author of two books from Persea Books: Ghost Hour (2020) and Having Been an Accomplice (2012), winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize. Her poems, essays and interviews have appeared in anthologies and publications including the Best American Poetry series, the Academy of American Poets, Big Other, The Bennington Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Court Green, The Curator, Iterant, Lit Hub, The Literary Review, Public Seminar, and WSQ. She was the founding poetry editor for The Inquisitive Eater: New School Food and is currently an associate editor with Tupelo Quarterly. For many years she curated the Monday Night Poetry Series at KGB Bar. She has presented panels on reframing the writers' workshop and the ethics of writing nonfiction. In her teaching practice, she is especially interested in collaborative pedagogical methods. Her work supporting writers at The New School has included programming The Summer Writers Colony, the Writing & Democracy Honors Program, and the BA in Creative Writing. She is a member of the feminist writing collective The Matrix.