“this razor girl” by Jake Tringali

i am affected / she is choice
first impressions / this razor girl

in that monday bar / we perch on maple stools
colorless void / deep evening / in cambridge
her eyes miles wide / white on ruddy skin / cheeky
the flight of spanish reds / untouched / meditate before me

bar surreal / pretty vacant / yet
the rudies and herberts observe / from afar / this first date

her elegant mohawk / crowned
pink peppermint in her hair
scandalous skin / subcutaneous ink
first impressions / a blink
she is wearing silver or chrome / this queen kink
she was not

an urge to explore / those shocked tufts
micron by micron / phenomenon

mod slink dress / onyx / leather peeking
hungarian body / ravenous
feasts on pheasant / in whiskey sauce
ominous

she lances my bare sleeve / with a toothpick / evermore
i was a conquistador / yet wounded / affected / afflicted

glossed lips form a tight light line and
she talks —

her neuro flaring / her tech wicked
her lab wiz / quantum physics / bolts with rivets
bytes and bits and figments / just the way she’s wired
controlling power / luminous stars
she’ll be / first motorhead on mars

her wanderlust stories / punk rock touring glory
she’s with the band / budapest – columbus – dresden
the working-class lads / new york – l.a. – london
holidays in the sun / with bitter pints
bully for them

inside / something has shifted / subtle
my heart nicked / and limbs and lungs
don’t let’s start

she fought sixty women once / this aggro pixie
and lost / to prove / her worth
heels / the herberts and rudies observed

a wicked wind / blows open the front door
her mirrored sunglasses / shift on the bar
photons reflecting / genuflecting
drifting and settling on a northernly heading
New England autumn / yet something blooms
this / night city / affected

the rudies and herberts observe / from afar
her dissertation emerges
she is impending / and
“wankers” she said

* * *

Born in Boston. Lived up and down the East Coast, then up and down the West Coast, now back in his home city.  Runs rad restaurants.  Thrives in a habitat of bars, punk rock shows, and a sprinkling of burlesque performers. Publications include The Manhattanville Review, Oddball Magazine, Rio Grande Review, and The Commonline Journal.

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