Fox Henry Frazier: Is It True?
Is it true, what I’ve heard about your mouth?
I’ve never wanted to kiss a man like you, not even
when we were twenty years old and everyone
we knew wanted to kiss you,
but for some reason I want to
know what my name feels like in your throat &
whether you’ve ever had the impulse to tell me
something tender, or wished you could
spit in my mouth while your weight is spread
out on top of my body.
I’ve been wanting
something to crush me, lately. It’s not
my crush on you, or even how I hate
that I have a crush at all. It’s that the person
I loved more than anyone
should ever love anyone else
did things to my body and my
heart that made me
nothing. Made me
void. I am still
Have you ever
wanted to drag your teeth along the edge
of my shoulder blade and savor
my uncontrollable shudder? Your breath perfectly
slow against the back of my neck? Into what
language did your tongue curl the cruelest
thing you’ve ever said? To whom did you say it?
Would you take it back now, if you could? What
haunts you? Last time I asked a man that question, I was
tangled in his arms, naked & safe, and he confessed
to murder. Then the intranquil spirit of his victim
possessed his body and tried to kill me. He failed
but may succeed yet because I’m pretty sure he
finally broke me. You know what that feels like? I didn’t think of you
when Cody died. I wept alone in my bed and then I called Saba, who was
in Texas, at a museum with her family. She knew
from my voice it was serious, that it couldn’t wait.
She stepped away, I told her, and we cried. I could
have said something to you, probably, about how sad I was, then,
but I couldn’t have told you about my husband
punching a hole through our bedroom door
one Sunday morning, a few weeks earlier, enraged
because he thought I was being too quiet. I have often
been proud of the fact that I can cry
in perfect silence. I’ve never
wanted to be with someone who says
the kinds of things you say. I’ve never
wanted the attention of a man who is willing to cry, or to talk
about crying in an unembarrassed way. And you? Have you ever wanted
someone this damaged? Of course not. Who could?
And you don’t. I know. But do you want to someday
hold the door open for me,
maybe? Your mouth moving
into the shape of a smile because you
want to smile at me? Saying something
like, I’ve been waiting for someone
exactly like you. Something like,
I’m so glad you’re finally here.
Fox Henry Frazier walks on the earth and in the water.