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Poet's Choice

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My life around pills and doctor's visits;

Force me to find old lovers and tricks,

Warn that their bodies may too grow strange;

To play the old game of who gave it to whom,

Gently lowering voices, alone in one's room.

The poem whisks along from the two senses of "culture" to Nijinsky to Harvard and then, as the last six lines begin, to the personal pronoun "me" and the equally personal emotion. That feeling, evaded then confronted, is expressed partly by pace and swift changes of direction. Here is another example of that expressive quickness:

Last Ditch

The one day of my life I had a girlfriend

was the first time someone asked me point blank

if I was gay. I was happy, thought Jennifer could end

something vague I was heading for. Trent tanked

that theory. Trent was curious and joking. I think

I could even have said yes, but I didn't want fag inked

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