dragons
she wants a book on fairies
and wimpy kids
no, dragons, she tells me
as she chases me around the place
she’s been chasing me since we opened
books about monsters
books about mythology
books by james patterson written by other people
but still for kids
definitely books about dragons, she says
my kid likes to read
about dragons, i answer
but not matter-of-factly
while i calculate that new york city
public school children
have forty-two days until they go back to school
i wonder if i’ll still be alive by then
well, she says
she folds her arm and extends a leg
and i pity the person who had to go home to this woman
who has the task of pleasuring her
do you or do you not have any books about dragons?
i don’t know anything about dragons, i tell her
oh, just like you didn’t know anything about monsters
or mythology
or who wrote the latest james patterson novel
is there anything that you do know? she says
i know that i wish i was a dragon
i don’t tell her
a big fire breathing mother with horns on my tail
and yellow teeth
and i’d like to fly in here and scorch everything
including the books by patterson
then i’d like to pick that bitch up by her neck
and swallow her whole
before flying off into the overcast sky
burning the landscape as i go
but i’m not a dragon
i’m barely half-human by mid-week
and today it is one-hundred degrees out
by the weekend i’ll have my electric bill
my rent bill and my student loan bill
i’ll need to keep this job for the foreseeable future
so i say to her
what about magic?
i know a ton of books about magic.
she wants a book on fairies
and wimpy kids
no, dragons, she tells me
as she chases me around the place
she’s been chasing me since we opened
books about monsters
books about mythology
books by james patterson written by other people
but still for kids
definitely books about dragons, she says
my kid likes to read
about dragons, i answer
but not matter-of-factly
while i calculate that new york city
public school children
have forty-two days until they go back to school
i wonder if i’ll still be alive by then
well, she says
she folds her arm and extends a leg
and i pity the person who had to go home to this woman
who has the task of pleasuring her
do you or do you not have any books about dragons?
i don’t know anything about dragons, i tell her
oh, just like you didn’t know anything about monsters
or mythology
or who wrote the latest james patterson novel
is there anything that you do know? she says
i know that i wish i was a dragon
i don’t tell her
a big fire breathing mother with horns on my tail
and yellow teeth
and i’d like to fly in here and scorch everything
including the books by patterson
then i’d like to pick that bitch up by her neck
and swallow her whole
before flying off into the overcast sky
burning the landscape as i go
but i’m not a dragon
i’m barely half-human by mid-week
and today it is one-hundred degrees out
by the weekend i’ll have my electric bill
my rent bill and my student loan bill
i’ll need to keep this job for the foreseeable future
so i say to her
what about magic?
i know a ton of books about magic.