2/30

“Ask your doctor if your heart is ready for sex”

I’ve been burned in the past, hurt

so often that caution has started to turn me

on. I find agendas alluring, and lately

I want to X every checklist I see.

It’s my own damn fault I have nightmares

for believing anything at all. The judge

was sympathetic as a Monday bartender, granted me

an order of protection. So now the past

and the future must both stay

at least one moment away from me at all times.

So you’ll have to forgive me

if even my lust asks you for references

and two months’ security. I know your eyes

mean it when they hold mine open and declaim,

I want you. I want you, too, 

but when has that ever meant anything

but right now?