My Boyfriend

After Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel His Exterior toes like blue glass marbles nails like wax shavings feet like those of an elephant heels like narrow escapes soles like yellow sponges expanding in water legs like longitude and latitude knees like neon headlights thighs like open desert in a movie hips like a leaping horse a belly button like a luminescent watch pubic hair like frontier instances a penis like overnight mail balls large as a boar-hound’s seminal vesicles like tulip bulbs in a paper bag testicle muscles like rising chords an asshole like an undiscovered planet buttocks like a fleet antelope’s a sacrum like plein air painting a back like a chalked sidewalk a spinal column like a suspension bridge ribs like a bookcase a sternum like gum shoulder blades like kitchen tables a chest like a stuffed animal pectorals like floating bars of soap shoulders like observed facts arms like lassos fingers like sparklers wrist bones like a shipyard elbows like antidotes hands like passports an Adam’s apple like a great circle course a beard like Whitman’s a chin like a lichen-splotched rock ears like a full bathtub a nose like a birdcage nostrils like subway tunnels eyebrows like a captive audience a birthmark like a stop sign eyelids like a partial eclipse eyes like effervescence optical nerves like an orchid a forehead like a window display temples like singing crickets cheeks like party invitations jaws like handcuffs teeth like sweet tea a tongue like watercolors a mouth like a silk lampshade a face like a moving picture a head like a jar of pennies a skull like a geode skin with a black line running down it epidermis like a wool sweater whiskers like a street sweeper and hair like a cloudy day. His Interior cerebellum like a coffee grinder cerebral lobes like a house on fire cranial membranes like a construction-paper diorama optical nerves like a developing Polaroid cerebral fornix like colonial maps pineal gland like a giant pinecone circulatory system like cello strings eardrums like a still life with oranges forehead like television backbone like a fiddlehead fern nerve channels like transatlantic cables uvula like a propeller palate like a telegram saliva like a rotating sprinkler tonsils like action figures stomach like professional wrestling trachea like pirate radio throat like a bold headline lungs like plastic bags caught in a tree heart like a supernova pulmonary membranes like dirigibles arteries like rush hour diaphragm like the sound barrier liver like a public trial veins like Japanese characters spleen like a rogue bowels like surrealism guts like an inheritance small intestine like fake pearls large intestine like stolen currency colon like reliable data rectum like a fade-out kidneys like a barrier reef loins like a mowed lawn renal veins like gossip sperm glands like lava beds prostate like a fissure vent bladder like a fish bowl abdomen like a leather suitcase muscles like an assembly line tendons like pickpockets ligaments like safety pins bones like bones marrow like realism cartilage like strips of kelp lymph glands like sentimentality urine like sugar water blood like melted crayons and sperm like flies in amber. How He Acts If he laughs, it’s spontaneous combustion If he mutters, it’s a retreating glacier If he pouts, he sharpens his horn on stones If he jumps up and down, its hard to look away If he scratches himself, it’s with an aspen branch If he gets angry, he fights with tooth, horn, and heel If he spits, he fights his own kind If he blows his nose, it starts a riot If he sweats, it’s monsoons If he coughs, it unlocks doors in the next room If he argues, it’s over lost rituals If he sighs, it ruffles goldfinch feathers If he whistles, it’s overheard miles away If he snores, it’s over nostalgic reveries If he scowls, spears launch from his eyes If he snorts, it’s over gilt lion-head spouts If he shits, it’s historical documents If he belches, it’s a diary If he vomits, there’s finger-pointing all around If he walks, it’s Chaplin If he writes, it’s manifestos If he goes shopping, it’s for lentils and peas If he dances, it’s the Rites of Spring If he swears, he’s a ryght cruell beast If he drives, it’s among the Mountains of the Moon If he bathes, it’s in deceptive surfaces If he dresses, it’s a white linen suit If he wonders, it’s if his own reflection If he’s jealous, it’s of birthday parties If he lies, it’s about mathematical errors If he spends money, it’s on magic lanterns If he goes to the movies, it’s Vertigo If he listens to music, it’s the sound of running water If he falls, it’s down a slope of turf into the bushes If he recites, it’s from the Beast Epic of Alexandria If he is seduced, it’s a river of electricity If he is curious, he attempts to draw If he calls, it’s about weather patterns If he sings, it’s ‘Tyger, Tyger’ and if he escapes, he’s swift of foot.