After a Mighty Fine

 
After a mighty fine rogering

I think about that fellow, Roger.

Peter made out all right, and Dick.

How did they luck out so much more

than John?

 

I start to think about my part in it all.

I gave him the old Belinda? Nope.

(Don’t say old, my inner Cosmo quails.)

It’s got to be a common name.

Not Virginia.

 

Likewise, Mary, Magdalena.

You are such a Beth! (Not working)

I showed him my Jennifer. Closer?

He got all up in my Ruth and Ester.

 

Vajayjay is someone afraid to say

vagina. I do like honey pot.

and sugar bowl, as affectionate

pet names. I’m meh on pussy,

that workhorse.

 

For years I used geography:

Look, you can see all the way to Kansas!

Alternatively, familiar places—

So sorry, the pool is closed.

 

I’d dish out better with a name,

something with legs. I flashed him my —

Amelia? Still wedded to vanished Earhart.

Besides, we need a name that vibrates,

likes to verb.

 

We sallied around, all the long afternoon.

That might do. There’s sally and Mustang Sally

both slow and fast. She knows her own mind.

Not too many syllables

and she drives.

 
 
 

Kathrine Varnes is the author of a book of poems, The Paragon, and co-editor with Annie Finch of An Exaltation of Forms. A former academic, Varnes now schleps her acting son of 12 years to auditions, sets, and back stages.