Silly Gay Aubade
We wake up to a rapid tapping at the window,
but I tell him it’s not the sun trying to pull us apart.
I say, “Maybe it’s my landlord Mr. Monroe, who always
demands rent from me. Maybe it’s my roommate Pete,
who loses his key more than the sun sets or rises.
Maybe it’s my neighbor Beatrice, who might want
to borrow another cup of brown sugar, crushed red pepper,
fish oil (assuming one asks for such ingredients at 6 AM).
Maybe it’s my sister Ruth, who always asks if I have
her Tupperware set, her old retainer case, her tabby cat.
Or maybe it’s your boss Mrs. What’s-Her-Face here to explain
that you don’t have to go into work anymore, because
someone set the office on fire just to watch it burn.”
He laughs with disbelief and kisses me good morning,
but before he can rise, leaving me alone with the warm
shadow of his side of the bed, I beg him to stay.
I say, “You could be climbing the hairy mountain of my
chest to reach the sleep in the snowy whites of my eyes,
your toes pouring down my sprawled legs like fresh rain.
You could lie on your stomach while I trail my fingers down
your sweaty back as though sliding my hands across barrels
of sunflower seeds, uncooked lima beans, wet silt, slimy marbles.
Our tongues could explore every winding curve of our ears,
our cheeks, our chins, our teeth, as though we could find a place
to rest together forever, without distraction. We could even
nestle like larks in the endless nests of our arms.”
But he kisses me again, rises to the continuous tapping
at the window, which he opens, revealing a steady stream
of morning dew, along with a cardinal perched on the sill.
When he steps into the bathroom to shower, I walk to the window,
shoo away the bird, which flutters toward the violet skies,
the crimson sunlight riding on every feather
of the cardinal while the sun itself crawls out of the hillside
like a lover longing for one more hour of night.
Jacob Butlett (he/him) is an award-winning gay storyteller with an A.A. in General Studies and a B.A. in Creative Writing. In 2017 he won the Bauerly-Roseliep Scholarship for literary excellence, and in 2018 he received a Pushcart Prize nomination for his poetry. Some of his work has been published in The MacGuffin, Panoply, Rat's Ass Review, Cacti Fur, Gone Lawn, Rabid Oak, Ghost City Review, Lunch Ticket, Fterota Logia, Into the Void, and plain china. He was selected as a finalist in the 2019 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards residency competition. Learn more about Jacob at https://jacobbutlettacademicreflection.weebly.com/.