She was 18 , it was summer
and she loved it when they honked their horns or whistled
and never acted like she didn‘t;
she wore thin-strapped cotton tops that hugged her warm brown shoulders,
her hair was golden from the sun
and she rolled her cutoff shorts to make them shorter.
He was three or maybe four years older
but he graduated Central,
they knew a lot of the same people,
she and her boyfriend bought a quarter-ounce of sinsemilia from him once.
She bumped into him that night,
really bumped into him coming around the corner
and almost didn‘t recognize him—
black dress pants, white dress shirt,
like a waiter at one of those restaurants where the menu‘s all in French,
the six-pack in his hand was short a beer.
He talked about the new job at the new
hotel downtown,
how much it paid and how the
benefits were good.
He joked and said he was a
Miller Man but got the
Heineken tonight to celebrate,
she didn‘t know him well but she knew him well enough;
he said he had some
weed and he said he lived close by,
she couldn‘t hurt his feelings when he asked,
just being friendly,
if she‘d like to come along.
shut up
turn around
never done it this way have you
hurts a little there at first
got something for you
open wide
wider
that’s it
yeah
good girl.
Bathroom‘s right in there, he said,
get dressed I‘ll take you home—
don‘t take too long,
I gotta get to sleep,
that new job starts first thing in the morning;
I don‘t know why some girls act like they don‘t want it.
Good thing you don‘t act that way, he said,
her hair was dark with sweat,
she was 18, it was summer
and she shivered.