On meeting the poet John Neikrasz

You are maybe the most physically attractive man I’ve ever known.

No,

Second most physically attractive.

Someone comes before you,

but I haven’t seen him

since I was twenty

and now it turns out he has a kid.

We had good times, he and I.

But you

You let the air out of my tires

To stop me from leaving Montana in the morning.

“I have to go to Saskatoon,” I say.

I’m an artist.

I’m on tour.

But because of the tire thing, now I have to stay the weekend

With you in your tiny house.

This would not be such an inconvenience

if you wanted to make out with me.

Why don’t you want to make out with me?

I think maybe you are a sociopath?

I think maybe you are gay?

I’ve heard the story about your date with Holly.

How she told you she got into medical school.

How you told us it turned you off.

I think maybe you are a sociopath?

I think maybe you are gay?

I don’t think I need to tell you

that your MFA

from the Iowa Writers Workshop

your finalist status for the Stegner fellowship

your band on Thurston Moore’s label

which, who cares about Thurston Moore?

will not make more women

find a man

who is exactly my height

and who looks like a monkey

attractive.