Cartoon You(for Franklin Hannatt, winner of the
2010 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Atlantic City Great Face Off) Intimacy is a man willing to be ugly for you in public. Slip your fingertips under the waistbands of your eyes. Press in as if holding a cup to a door, listening so hard it bows. Until the water balloons of your face can nourish newborns. Until your audience wonders if shaving cream or soup will splash out. Or if clouds burst against a sidewalk. Spread the plumage of your lips wider than the cartoon you, soft as Louis Armstrong’s deflated cheeks. Ignore the tapping in your mouth. Do not relinquish teeth white as a threat. Present the threat that you will not threaten. Be the curtain of a man, someone somewhere claimed was good. Revel in the soft mattress a face becomes for a wife and stranger. Whether they Believe It or Not! ... Originally appeared in Lyrical Passion Poetry e-zine. |
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