Click play below to listen to a reading of this poem by the author.
He sits in the back,
where darkness
embraces him with heavy arms.
As the thump of bass
slams up and down his spine,
he watches
the second-year law student
as she circles and swirls
above the stage.
Like cream poured
into black coffee,
she has achieved a fluid state,
her uninterrupted pudding smooth skin
summoning all the curves and sways
of his yesterdays.
Her glow lights the upturned faces
of the front-row fools
with their dagger eyes
and their tens and fives
and their laughs
and backslaps
and lap dance lives.
He sits in the back,
ensconced in the black.
And it occurs to him
that this is his life.
But he imagines
he is better than them.
He imagines
she would prefer him.