REPULSIVE NEW YORKERS

Repulsive New Yorkers

From Fifth Avenue Up

—after Djuna Barnes

Someday beneath some bright—

Capricious marquee, spreading its

Blinking lights, you’ll know me for

The queen I really am. 

It only takes one look at me—

Cruising my way thru the subway

Giving myself away with
My legs half strangled in lace.

Seeing me in Central Park—

My cool pale eyes straining to
Touch those languorous anonymous
Obscene sailors with nice thighs.

Like Tennessee Williams—

I’ve managed to escape and feel
The recoil in fear what those fertile
Guyz urge in my blushing ears.

Fifth Avenue Going Down

—after Djuna Barnes

In the humid Brooklyn night—

In the heat my damp chemise lies
Pulsing beneath the beat of young

Sailorboyz fucking me like crazy.

See me sagging, bulging—

My composure beginning to slip

Wishing I had a nice vague vagina

Instead of a tight sore orgy asshole.

Once I would have called this—

Not very womanly or manly either

Saliva dripping from their puffy lips

Plunging my face into the pillow.

What would my mother say—

Back there in Columbus, Mississippi

That naked grimace looking over my

Shoulder, complaisantly full of dick?

From Third Avenue On

—after Djuna Barnes

And now I cruise the docks—

Whenever the Fleet comes in and

What trick or game of dice will I

Use to seduce roughtrade tonight?

Cruising the waterfront late—

I sleep all day long without any

Conscience or desire to confess my

Skanky, upturned legs in the night.

They swear in my ears—

Dirty prayers and hurried curses

All my friends have dispersed

Thru my window the stars aghast.

I have this vacant space left—

Here in my heart as my grin goes

Vacantly off into space with nothing

But my poor hurt cries to hear.

Seen from the “L”

—after Djuna Barnes

I yawn in the morning—

The molested young sailor thrown out

Down the dusty length of stairs

Another one’s always there.

I don’t really care much—

You’ve seen one you’ve seen them all

Chain-smoking my way each night

Slipping thru crooked alleys into vice.

I’ve lost my petulant youth—

I no longer bloom vividly vivaciously

I’m uncouth and repulsive-looking now

Hung-over, drooping eyes looking blue.

It’s twilight time for the illicit—

My insatiable fingernails digging into

Their sweaty backs, dark-rimmed

Sunken bedroom eyes mine. 

Sailorboyz in Bed

Sailorboy A

He sprawls out in bed—

A shifty-eyed, sexy tramp steamer

Tough sinewy muscular look like
That kid below deck on the Orizaba.

Sailorboy B

He gives me a hurried shove—

Like the Titanic going down fast

With a bored look on his face like

A dumb mug of beer gone flat.