I wanted to kiss the guy on the train
Without asking, but night hadn’t yet
Fallen & also that’s fucked up, not
Asking, so instead I set myself an
Ultimatum:  I will kiss every death
On both eyelids before going shopping
For flowers                   I will strip away
These layers of artifice &   try to con-
Vince you that I live               in a cage
I will reconstruct     our secret dialect
In Midwestern neon  & love will reign
From here to the small space between
The sequins                        in your teeth

Tom Snarsky teaches mathematics at Malden High School in Malden, Massachusetts, USA.