For The Boys

Anita Ekberg 1953, by Phil Stern

Initiation
by Colin Dodds

With one ejaculation,
I was exiled from mythology
and pushed into the streets.
I made my debut in that birth canal
that never gives birth,
but only replaces and replaces.

I found a spastic moment of peace.
And it bothered me more than loneliness did.
Its relief was just one more law sunk into me.
I was no match for that peace.
I spent half my life chasing it down
and the other half trying to escape it.

I wanted my desire to swell enough
to dissolve the rest of me
or to vanish altogether.
Neither occurred.



Not Built for Wisdom
by Colin Dodds

I spurned those who wanted
to be closer to me
because you can’t be god
in someone else’s heaven.

I told myself and them
that I wouldn’t be around too long,
that I heard music in my head
that was really music.

Only a sound, a voice
that exists completely
before giving a hint of itself
can appear like that, like music.

And I wouldn’t be so
selfish
if it didn’t seem that what I had
was so specifically my own.


[copyright Medium Rare Publishing, 2003]

Dylan Writing, by Daniel Kramer

Anita Ekberg contact sheet, 1953 by Phil Stern