Blueprint

Blueprint


Faster than you can marry,
you are dying.
The windmill says 12:01.
A new day. Maybe.
Soon there will be a map
of all human chromosomes
A votre santé.
A red-neck gay bar.
Salud.
This trade has a shag,
asks for a light.
This john is red, drunk
& asks me down.
Down where?
O, Dorian,
in the Chinese chest
where the fabric
should have been,
there was the body
of a man:
twenty year old
intruder
with a three year old bullet
in his head
like a third eye,
wrapped in saran wrap,
& not in gold lamé,
dusted
with white baking soda,
not with silver glitter
& not smelling
of ³Evening in Paris².
Coincidence?
We think not
there was a note:
³Upstaged by Dorian Corey²,
she wrote,
³the movie star².
Football, Monday night,
on t.v.
& K.D.
Lang
on the juke box
Three lives.
Three wishes.
I wish for a boyfriend
with a cowlick
& a dog.
Not really.
The bar is filling up
with guys
in size 13 beige pumps
& camel blazers
with perfect manicures,
& baby boomers
in guess? jeans
& New York Rangers
bomber jackets &
big, cut-glass diamond
pinky rings.
No one like me,
whatever that is.
Years ago, closing a place
hitting the street, looking up,
I saw, I thought I saw,
Dorian Corey
in her yellow feather coat
at dawn,
but it was only the sun.
Now the bartender buys
my second drink.
He¹s young enough
to be my boyfriend,
but he smokes,
and I can¹t stay here until 4.
William, my friend, remember
one Sunday afternoon
when it was snowing,
when we sat here in Julius¹,
when we thought
there was a world,
when we imagined
a world,
& the Employees Must
Wash Hands sign
didn¹t seem ominous
& Miss Thing was always funny?
Dorian/the stiff/
the blow-job/the trade/
the score: you pick.
³ A complete genetic blueprint
for a human being may contain flaws²-
(New York Times, December 16 1993)
Handsome young
football players
on the screen
seem to kiss
through their chin-guards.
Giants vs. Saints.
Cautionary Viewing Advised.
Saint Dorian. Saint Dorian.
³Night, Bill²
³Night, Dale²
³You¹re the best²
³Dry as his ass²
³How would you know?²
³Read my lips²
Laughter all around.

-Michael James O¹Brien

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Rob Roth for The Jackie Factory ©1995
Moved to mothernyc.com and updated February 2000