Truly Outrageous

Let’s get this party started right.

I’m ready for my close-up. And a poem:

You Will Enter History

But not as you imagined it,
sweet pea. Forget
the temple rumbling, the verboten
statues lurching off their pedestals,
the corny punkoid soundtrack
cranked up to its predictable crescendo.

And is that you, boy god, all golden
in a beam of light? Nah, not really.

Let’s imagine
that it’s any normal day.
You’ve shaved your own head
in a touching but unnecessary
fit of loyalty.

Now it’s up to me
to slip you out of full Nazi regalia
and into something chic
but spiritually comfortable,
like a lit candle
and the wild fear in your eye.

You will enter history
as a line of black-cowled monks
enters a monastery,
without a word, my sweet, without
a backwards kiss goodbye.
–Rachel Loden