Sitting on 7' X 7' tiles near track 9 in Penn Station

    screwed
        Little pudge boys play
        with phallic balloons
        that should have been poodles,
        magician screwed them today,

        or the moms screwed the boys
        and the magician came cheap
        either way, they're screwed
           playing on tiles
           waiting for the train.

    looking up into the fleshy arm of a woman I knew…
        My German teacher hovers
        und die Antwort ist
        und die Antwort Frau Egan, und?

        Sein oder nicht sein.
        We learn Shakespeare
        after counting. No rest
        or use for the words we know now.

    tracks posted
        People thrust
        spastic like sperm
        on the film in seventh grade
        pre-pube warning of a yes

        I say yes.
        I join,

        thrusting then and now
        thrusting off strategically located tile.

        Track 3, I win,
        first to doors and gaps
        but June monthly's no good here
        it's the first of July.
        Screwed like the pudge boys
        no poodle
        no pass.




    Bio Note
      After graduating from the University of Michigan (B.A. English, B.A. History of Art), Clare Gallagher moved to New York City to teach as part of Teach for America, '91 corps. Clare has been a featured reader at the Ear Inn poetry series on several occasions.

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