FRONTAL

A mis­quote dilates
ghost-red and hat-black
the Krem­lin of impulse.
On the spiky chance
the thighs are real
I am
their appetite
for polyandry, Dada,
booze and spaghetti,
the unsee­able apartments
in a dream of hallways.

CRIB

Soupy riv­er of alt-sex
as is

mocked by ter­rap­ins and pangolins
and melan­choly aye-ayes

drawn by a scent to where a body
waltzes into mind.

Men­to haba tumo matu.
(In case I forget

the pro­nouns of animals
I car­ry this.)

Next→

Les Gottesman’s first pub­lished poems were in Ted Berri­g­an’s C mag­a­zine in 1965. More recent­ly, his poems have appeared in print and online jour­nals and mag­a­zines includ­ing Thin Air, Otis Neb­u­la, Samiz­dat, Feluc­ca, H_NGM_N, Wag’s Revue, Juked, Future­Cy­cle, Aname­sa, Beat­i­tude, Harper’s, Anti­och Review, and Colum­bia Review, as well as in twelve chap­books from his own imprint, Omer­ta Pub­li­ca­tions. Fin­ish­ing Line Press will pub­lish Les’s new chap­book, Mis­us­es of Poet­ry and Oth­er Poems, in Jan­u­ary 2013. Les has been a teacher in San Fran­cis­co for over 30 years. He received an MFA in Writ­ing from Cal­i­for­nia Col­lege of the Arts in 2011. See more of his work at http://www.lesgottesman.com