December 9th 1981 to 1982

7

 

Friend of Mine

I guessed

before you confessed

then we

hugged in the street
danced at the club

visited at the chic boutique,
you taking my arm

grand tour of wares:
cashmere t-shirts

leather jeans...

Today you look like
_ Errol Flynn pirate _

or genie —

scarlet bandana/golden slippers
too good for

la coste and Sergio.

We can laugh at

the constant parade

beyond this bench in

Granville Street market.

Don’t worry

_ T’ll ride home on the bus
with you; :
we’ll be like anyother couple
of aliens
the same only different.

80

  
 

Dalkeith Road

my tongue moves like a minnow you

say it all with breath and sighs

i hold your hand and gaze up at your
face no place else on earth i’d rather
be not even for a million pounds than

in your room

 

The Other Press

What Have We Here

Rain slicked roads

fall on my ass if

I’m not careful

I'll fall at your feet.

I’m the one

who talks a little louder
with my friends

mouth independent of brain
so goddam nervous

this is the realworld
where love happens.
One day I will stay

on this bus

to see where you get off:
like magic

I will be the orphan

on your doorstep
Horlicks and a sweet
then I'll

go home.

Page 7

  

Child’s Song

This photograph of mother -
backdrop: grandma’s garden
in summer.

mother pulling faces at

my appreciation of her

rare sober moment

but there’s deceiving

junkie eyes.

Nemesis for her

would be a hundred family
reunions,

with all who knew her when
there were letters on her sweater
and boys on her arm.

Sometimes I’d like to
ambush her

scare shit from her

put fear of Almighty in her
drain the liquor from her...
but today

I’m buying her another hamburger
at another welfare diner.
The change

will be her busfare

back to her hole in the wall
no-name hotel.

So long take care

fragile cross

I sometimes bear.

Poems by Helene Wistoski

 

 

uh.”