In the Chamber
By John Godfrey
Bungle is the password
A slight matter of a deposit
secures you the night's
blank face on the large
crude banknote
I offer all the grease
that's ever been on my
palm as advice:
Don't breathe in
the lights of evening
Moonshine hits the can
bounces off and
consumes the drapes
I'm talking about here
where we meet at
the emergency water supply
One man and one
woman gets you
one of each
and some shadows
A caress in the breeze
A caress please so much?
You can't even die without
touching, you can't
sweeten the fat street
of faces
without touch
I don't retain the melody
that set me, dressed
as I am, in motion
in marriage with myself
It ain't no honeymoon
to take off my breast
and play it
So it happens you
notice me in my
canary shorts and
my crimson fez
Twunk twunkity twunk
My thumb piano, my
very open eyes
Copyright Credit: John Godfrey, "In the Chamber" from The City Keeps. Copyright © 2016 by John Godfrey. Reprinted by permission of the author and Wave Books.
Source: The City Keeps (Wave Books, 2016)