Sitting there long enough, I got a free coffee
& the grouchy homophobic waiter ate the two leftover tacos,
watching on television figure skater couples
who looked like women, whatever that means,
who looked homosexual, whatever I mean by that,
in the country of vodka & bad pop music,
Mandelstam’s shivering, Akhmatova’s prayers,
all the athletes who bruised their shins in Vancouver,
Jen Currin has published four books of poetry, including The Inquisition Yours, which won the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry in 2011, and School, which was a finalist for three prizes. She has recently finished her first collection of stories.
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