“Kevin, don’t put your hand . . .”

Dmitry Kuzmin
translated by Julia Bloch, Yasha Klots, James McGavran, Kevin M. F. Platt, Leonid Schwab, and Michael Wachtel, with Dmitry Kuzmin

Kevin, don’t put your hand on his knee,
he lied when he said he was twenty-one,
he doesn’t love you, doesn’t want it, or even want to try it,
it’s just cool when a star singles you out,
when a star gets drunk just like us,
gets flustered and sweaty just like us,
moves in, tentative, just like us,
demeans himself just like us,
goes to take a piss like us — right on cue,
and now his American beauty will take off,
remembering how this scene can end
in a pool of blood and brains,
Kevin, tell him this isn’t Hollywood,
here you can even believe a bad actor, it’s your call.