DRUNK NIGHT

I burned for that boy who

would murder & torment -

though he probably never meant

to -

he never meant to hurt me.

He was suffering & insanity -

Those always sound good to me -

He ran naked into the gay bar -

He smiled and I saw stars -

I drove him home,

& the boy who he'd taken -

The tears that filled my eyes

As my love was forsaken -

& forgotton in the puke that he left

on my car door.

That gas station - that is where Dale

puked the night I drove him home, on

North Campus.

Is he still in prison I wonder?

Maybe Paul knows -

Paul who did things with Dale that I

refused to ask about -

Who shared my taste in men -

In suffering & confusion.

And that black girl in suit & tie -

The one I forgot -

Who hung out with us,

or so I'm told -

Who hung herself in prison;

Her stark white crisp skeletal remains

are the wind chimes of my mind.

© OCTOBER 2, 2000 By Jason Wright

-For Dale & The Pretty Imagined Black Girl-