there are moments after sex

when i dream of basketball
and grow arms like that comic book superhero
which enable me to simply extend them
and vent ball through hoop

there are moments after sex
when i ponder limitless blue skies
my consciousness
although asleep is aware of my dreaming

on nights that i have the john lennon dream
i strum a rickenbacker
the twelve-stringer
i am healthy and young and goddamn cocky

there are moments after sex
when i dream the parrot fantasy
i wake feeling melancholy
long for home and fresh-baked ravioli

late evenings when the cottonwood comes
i know celtic witches will hover
in flowing dresses over burning bonfires
lit to warm ethereal souls winging

the eyebrow vision is always frightening
i cannot speak of it

in dreams of undetermined sex and fervor
sometimes exact sexual designations become blurred
i wake inverted

on nights the attic man visits i clench my teeth
yet am captivated by curiosity of
explicit details of his unmentionable crimes
in the morning i shiver in a cradle of sweat-soaked sheets

there are moments after sex
when i fantasize of rising things
i rest on my back and submit to the mechanics of biology

sure erotic dreams tantalize
but often they embarrass me when
my lover is abruptly awakened
by my ecstatic dream-state moans

     Dan Sicoli hasn’t played guitar in years, hasn’t cleaned the car in months, hasn’t cut his hair since last fall, but he has managed to take out the garbage and wash the dishes. He is co-founder and co-editor of Slipstream Magazine and Press in Niagara Falls-Apart, NY.
     Other recent work has appeared in print with Serving_Suggestion, Heeltap, Bathtub Gin, Chiron Review, and Bender; and, electronically, with Disquieting Muses, Naked Poetry, Interweave, Thunder Sandwich, Bulk Head, Ragged Edge, Stirring, and Erosha. In 1999, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

other online publications:

Disquieting Muses:
• http://www.disquietingmuses.com/May00/sicoli1.html
• http://www.disquietingmuses.com/May00/sicoli2.html
Thunder Sandwich:
• http://www.thundersandwich.com/ts12/sicoli.html
Stirring
Bulkhead
Naked Poetry
Erosha

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