The Old Gods
When we were younger what did we worship?
Gods of that girl across the room with
that tattoo. There had been rumors,
but that night when it slid out
from under her shirt it was like the waves
retracted and returned
Atlantis.
Gods of the unlocked liquor cabinet
gods of the girls who smiled just right
gods of the fire that let us breathe everything:
we sang their praises in slurred tongues
and gossip.
But when you kissed her in hallway
at that party, and she bit your bottom lip.
When you told her that joke, and she laughed
and wrote her number on your palm
you came back and you told us:
the gods of the one smooth line
the gods of the right amount of tongue
they weren't there that night:
that shit was all you
and when we didn't believe you
you told us that joke, the joke you told her
and you were absolutely right. These days,
it's the only joke any of us tell.
Gods of that girl across the room with
that tattoo. There had been rumors,
but that night when it slid out
from under her shirt it was like the waves
retracted and returned
Atlantis.
Gods of the unlocked liquor cabinet
gods of the girls who smiled just right
gods of the fire that let us breathe everything:
we sang their praises in slurred tongues
and gossip.
But when you kissed her in hallway
at that party, and she bit your bottom lip.
When you told her that joke, and she laughed
and wrote her number on your palm
you came back and you told us:
the gods of the one smooth line
the gods of the right amount of tongue
they weren't there that night:
that shit was all you
and when we didn't believe you
you told us that joke, the joke you told her
and you were absolutely right. These days,
it's the only joke any of us tell.