Robert Nazarene

Cruise Control

My girlfriend is 15. I’m 58.
                  What’s a little space between friends?
                                    You ask: What??

She drinks. ‘Til she’s blue-green.
                  She wants to be a face painter.
                                    Blue-green’s a good start.

We met at “The Prey-Ring Home
                  Companion” Christian
                                    Compound. I watched

her skinny long legs
                  pump that bicycle and grind 
                                    that seat good. She loves to laugh, 

pound ‘em down and get sticky. Lately,
                  everytime we go to town
                                    we’ve noticed a gray

Plymouth Valiant following
                  everywhere we go. The driver
                                    wears a dark suit and sunglasses.

Looks kind of secret-like.
                  I’ve got a couple secrets
                                    up my sleeve and a great

big one jammed in my pants.
                  He’s got a funny looking
                                    license plate, too.

Speaking of which, it’s only
                  one more year ‘til she gets
                                    her driver’s license. She can’t wait.

Robert Nazarene founded MARGIE/The American Journal of Poetry and IntuiT House Poetry Series, for which he received a publishers' National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. His first volume Church (2006) is succeeded by Bird in the Street forthcoming in 2016. contact