My Job Right Now

1.

                As a boy,
and as a young man, I seldom had the guts to do what
                I most wanted,

which was to make love to girls. I know there were times when a girl
                wanted me to.
Once in biology lab we had to pair up, and I                
                was brave enough
to ask a cute red-head—Marie—to be my partner. We
                even went out
soon after. We took her car. She
                let me drive.
We drove all over southeast Denver that night. I don’t know what we did
                other than drive.
Marie talked a lot. We must have been drinking
                something—beer, I
suppose. At one point, Marie had me drive to the cemetery in Aurora.
                We got out
in a dark spot. I’m sure my job right then was to kiss her
                and take her
clothes off, but I somehow couldn’t get down to it.
                After a while,
we took off in the car again. She kept talking
                (mockingly) about eating
a strawberry ice cream sundae with a
                cherry on top.

2.
Barcarole

Now, as a poet, I must be braver
                than I ever
was as a lover – to sing memory
                in the (limping)
measures of my verse.
                If memory consents.
But I’m sure memory wants

                to be rocked
to these lapping strains forever.

                I must not 

be reticent or shy. I must
                not hold back.