faux press

_______________________

Walking around
with a hard-on
big as Manhattan, and
balls big as Brooklyn
I begin to understand
why women of a certain age
empathize with
20-year-old boys:

     all of us sporting
     permanent erections.

I am captivated
by the watermelon legs
of the girl
seated across from me;

felled by the hair
of the man at the diner;

knocked out
by the closing of fingers
on a rail;

rendered senseless
by momentary contact
with a cashmere coat;

turn blue
on the bus
catching the glance
of a violinist
and keeping it.

* To be read after studying the NYC Subway Map

previously published in
The World's Longest Open Love Letter

photograph by Harry Butt @ Oyster Studio

Jan McLaughlin’s life has a life of its own. She enjoys anything having to do with sound: conversation, film, dance, theater, music, chaos, and silence. Despite her life-long romance with language, McLaughlin says, “Words mean nothing. Action is everything.”

Princess-at-Large

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