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At the end
of the evening,
when you would come
into the bedroom
wearing a large blousey
white tee-shirt,
filling the room
with a lilac-scented soap,
and sit on the edge
of the bed
and slide your legs
beneath the blanket,
trying not to touch me,
you always did.
You said
it wasn't so bad,
and rubbed my chest,
the circles of hair
that rise from the belly.
Did you know
when you pressed your mouth
against my mouth
just as you turned
your body toward the wall,
the city lay down?
There was a star
deep in the floor.
In the windows,
blank photographs.
Sometimes late at night
I'd wake and wonder
whose problem am I,
whose son?
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Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com
Jason Shinder's books of poems are Every Room We Ever Slept In (Sheep
Meadow, 1994) and, forthcoming, Among Women (Carnegie Mellon Press,
2000).
His poems have appeared in Agni, Antaeus, American Poetry Review,
Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His awards include a NY Public Library
Best Poetry Book Award, and poetry fellowships from the Fine Arts Work
Center in Provincetown and the California State Arts Council.
Mr. Shinder is
the founder and executive director of the YMCA National Writer's Voice,
a network of literary art centers at YMCAs nationwide. He is also
the founder and general series editor for the forthcoming annual
collection Best American Movie Writings (St. Martins). He lives in New
York and Massachusetts.
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