A Frightening Symptom


I only need to be an Indian prostitute
so I can be with you--
tall in your uniform,
shy and barely twenty,
not yet mustachioed.

There are no strict delusions.

I only need to be a Spanish peasant
you hold to your wheezing buzzing lungs
as I lay dying.
I only need to try to kiss you,
mistaking you as my lover,
sucking the rich Englishman cigarette air out of you.
You needn't kiss me back too much, either;
you might pull away and say you have got a wife.
That would be ok,
as long as I can say that
I once had a split-second bristly kiss
with you.
I don't need more than that.

These are not strictly delusions.