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To Laura Fletcher's previous piece      To Part II

Sexual Invalid, Part I

Whiny teenage belt-buckle lust,
overandover--
ring ring
broken watch
foggy windshield
gossip
Gone.
It’s not for everybody.
Since I’ve been there, I’ll tell you why your mother makes hot chocolate after 1 a.m. if you’re crying and why pink-gray trash cans in the bathroom condense ashes of burned paper into tissue clumps and how your eyes stop feeling wet after you rub them with a washcloth and why time stops at age sixteen.
"Everybody"
who turns sixteen
is generalized.
Please keep the notes from the time after school in May
and the coffee cup you broke throwing
and even the make-up and hair gel if you can’t use it.

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