The Happy Nightmare (1:22 AM)

Katie, in her white skirt,
Rushes out of the room
In urgent anticipation
While Sandy folds the yellowed cloth nearby
As I, deep in the closet, watch, unseen.

Later, by the seashore
Penny and also her mother
Tell me all about their problem
With brilliant grins and solidarity
As I, deep in the closet, sit nearby.

It all began so very young
As secrets often do
When all the girls would go and come
All smiling two by two
So early on we hold it in
Imagine only shame
Love only what we’re told to love
Lest others know your name!
Vanilla sex, if that at all,
Christ and the two-point-five
It’s far beneath, in filthy frills
Desire’s still alive.
You come again, you cry again,
And pray the stench away
Imagine buxom, waxed and clean
A day or three they stay.
But Dara, Katie, Laurie, Jen
Won’t take their leave from you
Their “problem”, be it real or not,
It’s still your problem too.
You’re not alone in what you need
You learn it when you’re older
But others feel your very shame
Beneath it though they smolder
So love it, hate it, push it back
Do all you can to void it
It isn’t going anywhere
You might as well enjoy it!

Laurie, in her bathing suit,
Stands before us all proudly
In pleasant ticklish discomfort
While all the boys admire her on the edge
As I, out of the closet, watch and come.

Bang.