Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

 

Have You Ever Had an Orgasm?

                                                                     New Year’s Day at the St. Marks Poetry Project 2024

 

Suppose the poem was about you.

What would they need?

“Our age bereft of nobility”

Every day my body gets sexier.

My mind gets more devious.

Will you ever have an orgasm again?

It must be a language bomb.

Would you like to go into permanent debt

to write like this? Everyone I love

passes through me

and not just enemies get weaker in the knees.

I heard a European dial tone

when lightning struck the house.

“Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?”

I saw the ruins of poetry

for I was born at the end of this world.

Even if no salvation should come you still

pretend to be the co-chair of the English department.

Imagine going to an art museum and only seeing bowls of fruits.

Hold me closer Times Square Elmo –

I’m collecting horcruxes but am I

sexy enough to read at The Sex Project?

“I’ve been killing just for fun.”

Like Jimmy Schuyler I’m coming to crash for the weekend

but will actually stay like 12 years.

As snakes curl up the podium

I’m collecting infinity stones.

My ideas smell sexy to me.

Set a 1 minute timer and

party in the Newark airport.

I’m expecting a visit from the Virgin Mary

who is so pissed.

European police sirens everywhere –

please verify you are human.

Oh Megatron I’ve waited since the beginning

of time to unhook your bra strap.

I put yellow roses for Benny in the bookstore

and on this the nightiest of nites

a pink unicorn gave me a ride to Bellevue.

“Will I be with you or will I be among the missing”

I want to put your Bollingen prize in my face hole.

Oh ye knowers of human nature say in a loud voice after me –

Worm! Art! Swan! Freeze!

Get shadow banned for seasonal depression.

The first one to get a ChatGPT poem in The New Yorker wins!

“Tentacle dildo makes blonde elf squirt.”

You don’t need an MFA just hang out with us in New York City.

I hear Gandalf’s voice in my head

when your one night stand wets the bed.

 

Jim Behrle is the co-host of Bad Animals on WFMU. His books and chapbooks include She’s My Best Friend (Pressed Wafer), Succubus Blues (Editions Louis Wain), and It Serves Me Right to Suffer (Hotel Poetry).

 

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx