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.

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.

 Clare

 Gallagher