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Kimberly Nichols: Kimberly Nichols Poems

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TOUCH HUNT

Kimberly Nichols

1.

Her freckled elbow on the bar
She smells tough
"You’re thinking of anchovies."
She tells her lover
She’s very blonde banged
And I like that black soot
Let’s ditch our friends
Blonde on blue on blonde
On blues
Steamrolled by the butterfly in the corner
Variations bar
Smokers from Europe commandeer the vinyl stools.
We’re still holding out after hours.

2.

At noon in bed
He braids my hair
And receives one hell of a blowjob.

3.

There are various kinds of African dance
There is the airborne kind:
Bodies flying, knees up sharp into chest,
Hands outstretched.
There is the earthen kind my friend Lulu perfects:
Trunk bent, legs pounding into ground, ass round.
There is Congolese:
My fluid water trance, hips-a-swivel, heaving chest, no bones
In one amoebic state of bliss.
Electric sweat.

4.

A general sense of malaise
Wanting to fuck for the mere-ness of the act
The quick fix without praise
The junkie junk funk.

5.

This is my touch hunt
This six months of flesh
This experiment in connect
The only inevitability I have.

6.

Passion
A need
A WANT
To blow one leaf of bougainvillea
Up so big
That it encloses this house
And captures it all in one square
Of fuschia colored emotion.

7.

He was drunk
Raving about zygasms
And morphine
And kidney operations
And BOOM
The firecrackers went off behind his back
And hunched over he slumped
An old man again.

8.

Blow the man down
Kiss and make up
Blow the man down.

9.

If I can see far enough into the future to recognize the obvious, why can’t you?

10.

Itching
I’m crawling the walls
Eating until my belly is about to burst
Filling
Wanting
MORE
Art and sex and writing
Art and sex and writing
Art and sex and writing
And maybe a few rolls of black and white film.

11.

You had dinner with mutual friends last week in Paris.
You danced in St. Tropez last Tuesday.
You saw a few plays and came into my office and sat
Sunburnt and fat
Wearing red silk pants
And I asked if I could share a piece of your studio.
A place not too hot where my paints won’t melt.

12.

"This isn’t esoteric," you said. "This is urgent."

13.

You walked in wearing a tee shirt with Laverne and Shirley’s faces and the caption "Lesbian’s Rule".
You bought it last week in San Francisco
Where they no longer had the "You’re All Whores" shirt that I was dying for.

14.

Gay bar with Merlot
And you say your lover isn’t arousing you sexually
And I tell you we go in waves
That relationships mean nothing when they’re simple
That life is based on constant change.
You clink my glass and we toast art
And each other
Muses
Mirrors.

15.

90 degrees
No fans
Hot children stark naked and panting
On the living room floor
Cold baths
Doors and windows open
The wind whips through the trees
Like taffy
And I feel my body
For the first time in a long time.

16.

Pixels and sleep
Pixels and sleep
Pixels and sleep
And a friend
A man who teaches me about Zen.

17.

Everyone wants to know if I am in?
Am I?

18.

You hold up your pinky
Squeeze mine in yours
And we vow to be each other’s right hand men
In one ear
Stopping there
Our secrets.
I’ve made this vow with people
Time and time again.

19.

Biggest fog of my life today
And then suddenly
Everything is clear.
You call from the airport
New York City
You and the others wish I were there
All of you in hilarious form
And me asleep for days
For years
Maybe even centuries.

20.

"I am going to wake up tomorrow."
She tells me
Her voice sour and warm from rum
Brown sugar and orange juice
"I will wake up."
She promises again
But this time I believe her.

21.

Back in action
Wooing friends
Influencing strangers
Asleep at the wheel
Too much numb fun.

22.

You tell me you are glad I ache from your lack
I need to start appreciating you.

23.

Playing hearts with strangers
Two Canadian couples with big work ethics
And a non-American approach to immigrants.
One of the men
A big corporate hero
Says his Mexican laborer has been found stealing company ladders
To place around his farm for chickens to stand upon
I imagine this so-called thief
Living on four dollars a day on Mexico
And his beautiful seedy garden
Full of chickens and ladders
Surreal poultry and steel sculptures
A big and beautiful FUCK YOU to Latino exploitation.

24.

Candy asses at the beach
And little girls high on female power
Riding the waves on boogey boards
Bloody noses and sandy pants
Still unaware of their astounding beauty.

25.

You ride down the escalator smiling
You like my fresh tan
You call me beautiful
You are carrying sketches
And the confidence that comes from being away from me
From salsa dancing with unfamiliar women
From placing temporary tattoos on new backsides
You are all smiles
I seduce you in the car of the airport parking lot.

26.

You are happy that I can explain
The difference between fantasy and reality
You like the fact that some people do troubling things
In order to convince them that they have depth
We fall asleep, finally together again.

27.

You say blue is a beautiful color for me
Even though I haven’t been so blue lately
And as I sing in the shower
I recall the relief in your voice.

28.

You are going on a train through Seattle
So romantic with your lover
In little car compartments to see the country.
I say bye
For the weekend.

29.

Red flames today
All over the house
In the fireplace
In the sky
Outside
Our perspectives blur
When we combine.
It’s better.
Like a cheetah on fire.

30.

Knuckles cracking
A back stretching
Leg over thigh
Intimacy.