The Lovers
You are the alligator in my bathtub:
What you might eat of me
Is different in this environment
Than if we met in the reed shallows
Of some great lake where children
Go to gig frogs.
Those children plan to gig enough frogs
That dinner for the whole family –
A family weary from the bottomless day of tending
And herding and washing and gossip
And bearing and ceremonial conflict –
Is gathered with simply one lone sharpened stick:
And then together they disappear.
The Penultimate Interrogator
It is that interrogator’s job
To ask no questions at all.
He stands there, brooding,
As you get used to your little chair.
He has his arms folded most of the time,
But occasionally drops them to his sides,
Runs his hands into his pockets. He seems
Just a tad bit flawed, just a tad bit
Incomplete, as though in six months
He will be considered for promotion
Into a job for which he is not yet
Ready. You keep your knees
Together and lean forward: away
From the back of the chair, if you are
A woman; or fold your feet on their toes
With knees splayed and your back
Against the chair’s back as though
To challenge it,
If you are a man.
He knows
This is how it plays out. Somewhere
He has seen a training film on the specifics.
You alternate staring at him with glancing
At him, and you grip the sides of the chair,
If you are a woman; cross your arms,
If you are a man.
He conserves motion,
Letting his energy out only when it seems
He will burst. With time
You wonder if there will be
Enough oxygen in the room
For the both of you. He does not need
The water left on the small three legged table
Staged in the corner. He will not need
To visit the bathroom. You imagine
What there is you might keep hidden within
To tell his relief.
Ken Poyner and his wife enjoy their four rescue cats and two alpha betta fish in the southeast corner of Virginia, where both of them have family roots to the area that go back several hundred years. Ken’s latest book, “Constant Animals”, 42 ungovernable fictions, can be found through links at www.kpoyner.com, or directly at www.amazon.com. He has had recent work in “Analog”, “Cream City Review”, “Lime Hawk”, “Corium”, “Vending Machine Press” and several others. He has not found a way of working his wife’s power lifting career into his writing, which is probably best for all.
