Spectacular wedgie
worthy of prepubescent
boys in Norman Rockwell paintings
with upper thighs exposed
he soars up roped in
from trampoline to sky
till some teenagers pass by
look up and call out dork
and he notices his parents
I find him afterward and soak
him in a pool of flowers and insects
They peck at him
those insects with their cluckers
The boy looks
down at his forearms
into the well of his own Stay away stay away
parents
clanging in the foreground
I stand close and watch
as he jerks back fresh
from the Oh now blue is green
now up is down
moment
The air goes bruised
as he rises and falls bungeed in
finishing out his time
Here I say Use this phrase
like a flower in pain
waterbugs padding
across the surface foam
There is Nature's lash
and there is my lash
Boy say it with me Stay away
©
's poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in publications such as 32 Poems, New Orleans Review, Parnassus, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, and Witness. He grew up in Los Angeles and works in book production in New York City.
We’ve published seven more poems by Homolka: “sometimes song,” “Hooky,” “Vertigo,” “Rubato,” “resignation,” “golden gate park,” and “Orchard Street.”
