2 poems by Noah LeBien • Empty Mirror

Becoming A Man

I am donning a crown of ants from the sidewalk. I am putting an ear to the floor of the garage. Cohabitation. A sky-tar. Impress the girls because (you want to be one). Show them a. Pass on the. A masochistic Michael Jordan. The brush of a feather I can’t hear, is everything quiet? Muss a boy in the Art Institute. Max wins a trophy for settlement. The scope of a memory not remembered, orgiastic, not remembering which will spoor. Inches between the plastic figure striking a pose. Call gawk. The gravel I rub between my thighs. Something about how the Super Bowl ends. Embellishments in a peppermint mouth. Umpteenth time he’s acted like a clover. Where did who learn to be consensual? Who smacks the seat of the black swingset? Things mom doesn’t tell about egg cells. I think it must have been a toy sword? Sake guttural. If the moon comes up it could be an omen. I want to be older & regret it immediately. Jockeying for our snowman, the playfulness of herons, who seem such machological birds! The first time I wear pink duct-tape. The pubic cult. Unlearning coercion, I set myself back. Something went wrong and it was in a gauze curtain. The bridges falling apart since we crossed recrossed them. If one complaint. If it wasn’t for. That orbital noise. To the point where I’m trying to see past the future. The time our heroes dolloped in makeup. A photographic what? Which child expects erasure to live? The cassettes of me hiding. Pool orchid, sap in a mote. Wax on, minister; I have been waiting this whole time to wear these clothes, though I am shivering.

Ganymede Updates His Status In Heaven

1:52am: Sucked on his yellow-green rainboot.
14:02pm: Partied with a glock pressed to my heart.
8:16am: Slapped the ass of the Newborn Son of Osiris.
22:37pm: Jiggled my keys and plucked a bicycle spoke.
2:00am: Passed by a flock of herons.
17:50pm: Followed into the back aisle of the 8th floor of the library.
2:23pm: Farted in the face of a good journalist.
5:00pm: Saw an eagle bearing a snake though it was a flag.
21:03pm: The strain of it died in a laboratory but survived in the general populace.
8:09am: There are songs it’s always worse to complain about.
6:50am: Sculpted from shame if shame could inform marble or clay.
5:01am: A pearl of precum on his Jordans.
5:01am: Stopped in front of a mirror for once and smiled.
5:01am: Caught the daylight on the rim of a mug.
5:01am: Thought I should recognize more herbs.
5:01am: Got jealous at the thought of Anne Carson going to Venice.
5:01am: Every empire becomes post-linguistic at last.
5:01am: Language entirely subservient to instant gratification with no need to design a wholeness.
5:01am: Football players & valedictorians gazing at my ass or navel.
11:17am: Cherry tomatoes bright as gumballs.
19:22pm: Desired to be Buddhist then couldn’t go through with it.
23:47pm: Summarized a day but left the purpose of it out.
3:47pm: Attacked my father for his failings.
12:53pm: Crashed the senate in the high priestess’s robes.
8:04am: Jerked at the rind of a melon.
12:13pm: Walked the dog and remembered to forget my phone.
17:59pm: Another ribbon I am expected to dance with.
10:33am: The most selfish ends are the only ones that guarantee me meaning.
20:38pm: The dusted lines of a basketball I found in the garage.
7:26pm: The most pure souls are forgotten.
15:45pm: What my last thought might be.
9:58pm: A salamander slumps in the mud and opens its mouth.
3:58pm: There are wrists that are limp but they do not need ornate daggers.
3:58pm: There are years when it seems best to dream.
3:58pm: An insurgent but not that kind of an insurgent.
3:59pm: Waited for my opportunity as the Dialectic ticked out.

Noah LeBien

Noah was born and raised in Chicago, attended Shimer College, and received an MFA from Bennington College. He has poems published or forthcoming in Prelude, Bad Pony, and Barzakh Magazine, among others.

Becoming A Man

Ganymede Updates His Status In Heaven

Noah LeBien

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