Rock & Roll Body

by Greg Cotter

Got a new pair of tight jeans today

they cut into my ass
like the side of a hand,

ride up my junk
like a denim blow-job.

*

Former Beatle George Harrison
says he’s tired of music
that insists on personality.

*

In the dentist’s waiting room
I tear out a photo of Mick Jagger
stick it in my leather jacket
a woman is stuck in the elevator
in the hall
a green iridescent bottle fly
flies around my room
in the morning just past
many dreams
I called Sarah last night
the message on your machine,
you and your roommate: “Even if this
is a wrong number leave a message
and tell us your shoe size.”

*

In my dreams
I’m a person
I don’t want
to be around.

*

I’m at a table sitting quietly.
“What are you doing?”
“Brooding.”
“Want a blow-job?”
“Fuck no, that would take my mind off it,
I must continue this useless, senseless,
repetitious
thinking.”

“What is it?
What are you brooding about?”
“My inability,” I say, “to write myself
out of a paper bag.”
“Sex can cure that,” she says
“I’m 27-years-old
what
do I look like a virgin?”

I leave for North Hollywood
to rent a Stones movie
to focus on how desirable it is to be thin
and sing.

—-for Paula Shepherd