Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
What Gets in the Way of Love Is Love
Irene was on her knees,
filling her mouth
with my penis
when I turned my head
and became dizzy.
When she lifted her self
away from my body,
lay down on the sheets
of the mattress,
she pushed a pillow over the bed
with one hand.
The first time,
she took my hands
and showed me
the dark, fluttery grass
between her legs.
The fuzzy orange perfume
of her vagina
burned straight up
in my nostrils.
Two, perhaps three, times
I thought I had an erection
and she opened her legs
and I leaned forward
and my penis began to soften,
go away.
She always took out
two glasses of water
but I never raised one
to my lips.
Once she stopped me
in the middle of the afternoon
and offered to remove
my clothes.
When she pulled off
my underwear
I was almost her son,
my eyes looking back
with the barest of color.
The second book of poems from Jason Shinder, Among Women, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in April 2001. His other books include several poetry anthologies, the annual series Best American Movie Writing, and, forthcoming in December 2000 from Harper Collins, Tales from the Couch: Writers on Therapy. He is on the faculty of the graduate writing programs at Bennington College and the New School University. (updated 2000)