Is it just slide shows of faces
that we are feeding on? Not
first-met @ bars or flirting @
work – no sly-check of rings
on fingers/ We’ll decide via
swipes away – fly-swats & a
roll-catalog-first-impression
Then scroll down without us
admitting we only read later
Tag: dating
Nothing Changes
“Even the apostles were tent-makers
..They had to live just the way we do”
Sylvia Plath – The Bell Jar
My mother insisted No one’s happy –
everyone is miserable [back in 1982]
when life unnerved us teenage boys
[fearing obligations] But we couldn’t
stop thinking about sex & of getting
off with assuring girls – Go ugly early
was our pre-drinks motto / But I fell
in love with Fiona Malyan / She was
beyond my grip – my roughneckness
glowed / Then I tempted Marguerite
Donlon [her stage name] – but I wept
in a call box – She is not wanting you
was quiet advice from her gossiping
friend / So between lust & fucks with
several women & men [& rolling from
dirty beds] my ability to grip at things
rescinded & my mother’s insight rung
again – too now true / Rien ne change
Also on Medium
Coffee?
He walked her to her car
because his rare chance –
a quite rude assumption –
of a kiss could improve
Their talk skipped to weather
and about recent high rainfall
and that expanse of blue sky –
those age-old silence fillers
They stood facing each other
He fumbled under his bravado
with a quickened giddiness
of mid-teen awkwardness
even at – his guess then –
their nearly-fused ages
of just over – or just under –
their shared centum of years
How keenly he craved
to sip fresh desire – at his age –
in a pay and display car park
having over-run
his paid-for time
MIKE BELL | 10,000 Poems 