My Favorite Tomboy

Patrick Carrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a slingshot I made you

from mint berry branches.

Let’s play cops and robbers

in the drainage ditch at McKinley Park.

Tie my hands with fishing line, poke

your fingers in the small of my back

 

and lead me with hands high

through the back door of Otto’s

where you can try on that fur

your mother wanted for Christmas.

And dancing. I want to dance with you

 

and naked mannequins in the window

for the milkman to see. We’ll kiss him,

leave our lips on the glass and escape

 

to your secret attic as they sleep,

and kiss behind the yellow curtains

where no one sees, where you can

tilt your head the right way. I think

 

I’ve always loved you

and your sideways mouth,

how you say

 

Them's root beer barrels,

ain't worth the shit

they smell like.

Let's race through the cemetery young,

straight to Mayor Harrison's headstone

near Duncan Street. Before we run,

you’ll do it again, you’ll go and say


You ain't never kept up with me.
We’ll piss on opposite sides

of his black marble. I’ll hide

the gobstopper moon under your tongue,

something big enough to last forever.