Coochy-Coo

By Kit Schluter
You can call me Puppy, or you can call me Sweetybuns.
   You can call me Glasscake, Cromagnonpoops, or Pigeonselter . . .
   You could even just click your tongue twice whenever we
catch eyes—
   ah, from no matter how far away . . .
   but whatever it is you choose to call me (Coochy-Coo would
do)
   know I’ll gut it out,
   and all these names will become uniform, suddenly, under
this dumb excitement always welling up inside me . . .
   That name is mine, yes, more so than my given name,
   because the one I adore gave it to me . . .
   To be named again, correctly this time, with this name I
trick myself into believing I’ve been waiting for all these
years. . .
   (Silly, silly man.)
Copyright Credit: Kit Schluter, "Coochy-Coo" from Pierrot’s Fingernails.  Copyright © 2020 by Kit Schluter.  Reprinted by permission of Canarium Books.
Source: Pierrot’s Fingernails (Canarium Books)