Molly One Weekend by Peregrine Jack Molly sits beside me at the bar at Roca while I babble on and on about this and that, excited Because pretty Molly in her period dress, Old West, makes me feel sexy and confident Just by being there, with me. And when I stop she says No, go on, I like to hear you talk And I feel something inside me swell A voice directed to project, higher, farther, joyful. We eat muscles sweet like little tongues and I want to taste Molly's tongue on mine. Molly and I kiss beneath a mountain of covers The blue light of TV ignored in the corner She tells me the origin of her nickname Molly Ratchet, for working on cars at the local garage. And I picture the grease smears on the bare skin of her arms, her cheeks, and The bloodied knuckles from a slipped wrench under heavy torque. And something inside me tightens. Molly at her mother's shop kisses me over the counter When I tell her the price of my visit is just one kiss. Molly has said she's not a kisser, but so far we haven't stopped. Molly locks the shop and strolls Subway Street strumming her guitar and Singing an old folk song, and I watch her and listen With eyes full of awe and ears verliebt (in love) Something inside me reverberates Speaks of more, more, says I want more of this! Molly moans a little Her nipple in my mouth And when I ask how long she breast fed her son she says: Two years and I so wanted P to drink my breast milk, But he hates sweets so he never did! And hearing my fantasy so spoken and Feeling the regret of opportunity lost, of cruel irony I feel something inside me ache, like overfull breasts With no baby to drink. Molly and I slip into one another with the ease Of otters in water, warm she moans and moves An exotic dancer in a womb-like bed she peaks. I lean down, kiss the top of her head and something, no Everything inside me tightens & swells & aches & reverberates And so it goes all night long with catnaps in between and With the sunrise Molly says Wow I wish I'd kept count! Seven, I respond, and if I'm off in counting, it's only by one. But perhaps because of some new anti-depressant meds I'm on I rise unrequited like some religious nut who saves his Chi His balls bloated like overripe plums. Molly kisses me goodbye and goes to work and I sleep off my aerobic night til noon, drive to town Open my laptop, go online and learn that while Molly and I were banging to end the world last night My hero in Colorado was blasting himself out of this world With a .45 slug to the head, now dead, now just cold flesh. Something inside me dies. Crying alone in my car, my tears splatter the lenses of my glasses Lending all the world before me that classic Steadman-Gonzo ink-splattered look. Later Molly hugs me tight and grief-stricken still I run around her yard killing vampires with her 4-year-old son. For lunch we eat vampire hearts then lay together and kiss farewell With Shrek in the background and Molly's son bouncing on her back Multi-tasking, observing, perturbing (just enough to keep us with him) At last he lay down sweet beside us and with my arm around them both Molly & Chance, I feel something inside me, Some earthen dam long-jammed, soften and let go I ask her, Is this what family feels like? Molly says Yes. photo by Larry Elkins   Copyright 2005 Richard McKinney All Rights Reserved (Just ask & I'll likely let you reprint anything)