STAYING AFTER SCHOOL
for kathy
C Ra McGuirt
i was reading the editorial page
behind half a cup of coffee,
& at first i thought it was a column
by someone like ellen goodman about
this handsome intelligent entertaining bastard
who lied to her about using condoms
with the high-risk woman who came before her,
& the hell this bastard put her through
while she waited for her test results,
(which fortunately were negative).
then i took another sip of coffee,
& there was your byline
& your face...
i immediately called to congratulate you
on writing an excellent article
& share the laughter of relief:
you weren't mad at my carelessness,
(especially after i told you that
it only happened maybe twice,
not the 89 times you'd thought)
& i wasn't angry at having been
spanked in public. i deserved it,
& after all, considering our former roles
in those kinky games we used to play,
the turnabout was more than fair,
the irony appropriate.
you didn't deserve the crap you caught
from various quarters for cautioning
the public to be careful in its passion,
while no one said a word to me
for being such a stupid lying bastard.
you were brave. your words were good,
& the assholes punished the innocent party.
i can't fix that, but think of this poem
as my way of writing
I WILL NOT PRACTICE UNSAFE SEX AGAIN
one hundred times.
