Winter
By Chen Chen
Big smelly bowel movements this blue January morning.
From the living room TV, a commercial from our TV company: We’re the fastest, the only —
Meaning, Love us above all others.
What makes poop more pungent on certain days?
A question for science.
From the living room TV: the powerful cite Law, bark Order —
Meaning, Love us or else.
Years ago, a teacher said never to use the word “poop” in a poem.
Today, the icy kiss of the toilet seat wakes me up.
Today, I poop while my boyfriend shouts from the living room,
Did you hear that, meaning the atomic scientists who say we are now two & a half minutes to midnight.
But still I marvel whenever poop comes out as one true Platonic tube.
I am trying to be marvelous.
& to make my enemies throw up.
I mean, if you shower with soap & eat well, maintaining consistent gastrointestinal health, you should be ready for a rimjob or other forms of anal play.
My boyfriend & I are not platonic.
From the TV: a white supremacist cites Science, barks Two sides to every —
I mean, up the throat, out the mouth: the fastest, the only way the powerful will let go of their shit.
I mean, my boyfriend & I are not into scat but if you are I hope your beloved produces the most fragrant, citrusy shit.
I mean, is “shit” more or less literary than “poop”?
I mean, one winter night I got sick & pooped the bed.
& he just got up with me.
Helped strip the sheets, carry it all to the washer.
I kept saying, I’m so sorry, shivering, I’m so, I’m sorry. But he said, What? Hey. I love you.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2017)