D. A. Powell

MEDITATING UPON THE MEANING OF THE LINE "CLAMS ON THE HALFSHELL AND ROLLERSKATES" IN THE SONG "GOOD TIMES" BY CHIC

even the business of dying must be set aside occasionally. glaucous-winged gulls drafting 
the last ferry across the bay: lights of the city growing more luminous, more inviting 

who could have guessed love's a palpable thing: a dark splotch of kelp in the shoals 
or a mountain lion that prowls the edge of UC's cypress woods: desires a young student 
ivory mandible slack and slavering. at the amber hour snarls its empty bowels 

touch: that sensation I'd almost lost, or how to curl into another body hermit-crab style 
the grouchy old man in my mirror said "bare terror." said "who's sharing your towels?" 

go away, you bitter cuss. it's still 1980 somewhere, some corner of your dark apartment 
where the mystery of the lyric hasn't faded. and love is in the chorus waiting to be born