Nefertiti (College Avenue, State College, September 1996)

To the blonde, cigarette dangling from

red lips in the blue Chevette— in a past life

I courted you in Egypt, we danced, your

neck like Nefertiti’s as furiously we made

love— lived together, also, in Pompeii, & your

volcanic thighs took me sky-high. Now, here

you are again, pale cool flat diamond

eyed, I am ravishing you, we never think

of New Jersey, murder, mortuaries, what’s

ugly, fleeting, as the light goes green it

is all in the set-ness of your face forever—

frissons, fireworks in someone’s mind.