“I Want So Desperately to be Finished with Desire” by sam sax

:

after all my labor
                          pleasure arrives
inelegant as ever
                          secondhand chandelier    
onion sound
            the gutter that grunts
back at you when you spit
                                       in its mouth

                       //

even with my hand inside him                
               he’s somewhere else

                      //

the shipwreck leaves
            the paired animal bodies
floating             & bloated with salt

                  //

everyone drags all their past    
            lovers into bed

all their past beds  
            & public toilets                & foil pipes
& park benches            & cutlasses
            & cigarettes
& the deadbolt                   & the dead

Poetry by sam sax is featured in this week’s PEN Poetry series. Read more here: http://bit.ly/1oC5r8u