Don't Try This on Zoom

I’m an animal that ejaculates.

I really can’t shut up.
That’s why I always hesitate,

always waiting to let words incubate
before I put them in my stump
oration. I’ll ejaculate

before it’s too late
in the date, I hope,
but I’m obliged to hesitate

and dwell on possibilities that both terrify and fascinate
me—like freeing the rope
and going ahead and being the animal that ejaculates.

Feeling I’ve been on the straight-
and-narrow path too long,
singing the “Hesitation

Blues,” with no one for whose sake
to get down and put on my make-
up. I’m an animal that ejaculates.
That’s why I always hesitate.