[b]Curled and Jarred[/b]
as if something sparked a memory of
birth at two-forty-seven
on a Sunday
during a rainstorm.
Inside his narrow cot,
an itchy issued blanket –
coarse as the accented words and
foreign fingers wrapped around
his conditioned thigh.
“Vat yoo doo to me izt art,”
is exhaled as
breasts are flattened
against his back and
hair to his lips
like leaves to
moist concrete.
[b]The Biology Of Jimmy Smith[/b]
The skin of his hands is cracking
as Jimmy Smith becomes
subject to his first
in-class erection.
It is because of Mrs. Dopleworth,
the blue flower dressed
middle school teacher
preparing simple science notes
on a tall screeching blackboard.
She scrawls:
Some facts about your toads,
and the dress rises,
agitating little Jimmy in his
wiggling plastic bucket seat.
“The eardrum is located here.
It’s also known as the
tym-pan-ic mem-brane.”
Her floral short sleeve
flushes out a bit
while she syllabically points,
opening to a
black bra strap.
Watching without listening,
his feet crinkle
like foil on the
linoleum floor.
Staring at Jimmy:
“You’re allowed to touch
your toad.”
leaves her lips while
she brushes
baby powder chalk against those
midnight blue petals.
Jimmy aches to see them
wilt from her body
and collapse on the floor.
The same way he would,
if she whispered that
statement into his skinny ear.
He thinks of her lips so close
and rubs his hands together,
brushing off
tiny wistful flakes of himself
in a jarring
heart thumping moment.
[b]The Militants Have Invaded My Ceramic[/b]
and when they’re on leave
they recline
cross-legged
snorfling
dew from my greenery
[b]I Kissed Them[/b]
Laces wrapped,
looking like lips
against the
slippery
tongue
of her shoe.
by M. R. Benning (c)2003
([email]mbennin [at] bgnet [dot] bgsu [dot] edu[/email])
[b]Author’s Note:[/b]
M. R. Benning’s brain leaks perversion. It is not intentional. He is simply Freudian and it hurts. How he has taken it upon himself to manifest what you wish you could tell when you were twelve. He is almost there, creeping into everyone and tugging at their memories.
