This is X-rated, men and women going at it like rabbits. Men—in all their unfettered and horndog glory—something my dad’s crawlspace Playboys never include.

almost sixteen

The shop is small, not air-conditioned, filled with greasy machines and dangerous chemicals. Six sticky guys and two teenaged summer hires, a “slow” kid and me. He is the gofer; I scrub metal plates in an acid bath. Even doubled-up rubber gloves don’t keep the acid from seeping in and burning. Needing constant relief, I make numerous runs to the closet-sized bathroom and the wrinkled stash of much-fingered “reading material.”

never kissed
a boy’s lips

The door has a loose hook, no lock. If anyone is in the bathroom too long, someone bangs on the door, peeks through the crack, and bellows, You jerkin’ off again? They appreciate a wisecrack. Yeah, man! Those boobs! I endure their taunts like Saint Sebastian suffered his arrows.

my mouth
has harbored
other parts

—Long-Listed Finalist in MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2

Scott Wiggerman

A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, Albuquerque poet Scott Wiggerman is the author of three books of poetry, Leaf and Beak: Sonnets (Purple Flag), Presence (Pecan Grove Press), and Vegetables and Other Relationships (Plain View Press); and the editor of several volumes, including Wingbeats I and II: Exercises & Practice in Poetry (Dos Gatos Press, of which he is co-founder with David Meischen).

In recent years, Scott’s love of poetic form has moved largely into Japanese forms, and haiku and art have become more central to his work as an artist of both the page and canvas. For more, see Scott Wiggerman’s Poetry Pages.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Wiggerman’s introduction to his curated collection of haiku on the theme of the LGBTQIA+ experience, for National Poetry Month: Haiku of the Day, April 2023; scroll down a bit to access the slide show for April

⚡ The Story of Fire, haibun by Wiggerman in Issue 16 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (January 2023)