Teacher’s Pet

While classmates race to catch the shoddy bus,

I sit atop your desk and swing my legs,

and talk about Lolita and the cost

that Humbert Humbert paid for youthful flesh.

Lipstick smeared across my brace-less teeth,

and pleated skirt above my Mary-Janes,

I offer you a portion of my lunch;

you eat it but insist you should abstain.

The day that I returned to school a-flush;

you voiced confessions through the lunchroom din.

I wonder had it not been stigmatized,

what sort of ardent dance there might have been.

It’s clear that trysts without somatic ends

can cut what even lovers cannot rend.

(2013)