Literature

Pat Boran

His penis hanging between his legs
like a vandalized telephone, or some
deep-sea creature that cannot bear
solitude, so it hangs on--

this naked man is what I am,
and yet how unlike me he seems,
surprised in the mirror I was dashing by
on my way to the loo at 4 am.

And when a light comes on somewhere,
quick as a flash he turns away
like a man who keeps his truth concealed,
this Rosebud, this Jekyll, this Dorian Gray.

The 2River View, 2_3 (Spring 1998)