Good Night, Paul Excerpt

Selected excerpts from: GOOD NIGHT, PAUL
Poems by Robert Peters

BEACH LUST

Binoculars: naked surfers
in one another's arms
half-hidden by van doors.
Wet-suits slicked with kum,
waxy muscular posteriors,
groin muscle, bronzed music,
cacophony of nestled testicles,
arpeggios of zitless pecs,
the bourdons and tympani of sex:
you drive home shaking.

TORSO

His nipples resemble apricots.
His biceps are sheathed,
forearm turned palm up, vulnerable,
sinew attached to bone, etcetera.

By not flirting, the glissando of his speech
rings both with sex and the nature of God.

You crave his image, waft him
through wood smoke, distress, and jagged glass.

GOOD NIGHT, PAUL

In "Good Night, Paul" Constance Talmadge
arranges her peach-toned negligee
so that the sparrow breast throb of her pulse
winks through the chiffon and seduces Edmund Lowe
before the night and the wine sour.
She's a vamp. She loves the script.
Her tight blonde curls prick her cheeks.
She wears a rhinestone clip and stiletto heels.
Lowe has taped his foreskin,
nestling the excess in cellophane.
Raising her glass Talmadge squeals.
A lipstick flash. The tip of her tongue
is a little hatless man in a boat.

Each night, thumbtacked to your door,
her poster, smiling, tucked you in.
The mint on your teeth, your body in the sheets,
the whoosh of rain, the carp pond flashing fins.
On your move to another town,
you junked the poster, and now
there are no copies, at any price.

Though vaporous, Talmadge remains,
yes, raising her long-stemmed glass,
clicking her heels, caressing her silky haunch:
"Good night, Paul."

Note: The film GOOD NIGHT, PAUL, a silent five-reeler directed by Walter Edwards, was released in 1918. It was based on a successful stage play with book and lyrics by Roland Oliver and Charles Dickson, and with music by Harry Olsen.

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