Green Sweater

By Charly Fasano

 

Illustration by Charly Fasano

 

The girl in the green sweater
sings along and winks at me.

 She plays air tambourine,
dances like a robot,
her hair looks amazing everyday.

 She calls brass knuckles “knucks”
and whiskey neat a “sipper”.

 When we talk
we glimpse
over the rims of pints and shot glasses.
Gulp on the edge of tumbling to slow the pace of things.
Nod puckered
toe tap to the baseline of Cure songs.

 I memorize our rattled chatter.
Note that she likes when I wear
my favorite brown shirt with black slacks.

 Make moves without making moves.
Microbursts of flirts and eye contact.
Gestures I could have created but controlled.

 Sips on the edge of tumbling
to slow the pace of things, everything.
A Memphis kind of
comfortable,
cool,
slow,
because.

 Music too loud to get close,
to lean in
tell her that she looks nice.

Wish I was
comfortable.
cool.
slow.
because.

 

 

Charly Fasano is a poet, performer, filmmaker and block printer, as well as a Westword-voted Colorado Creative. Fasano has read his poems with and shared the stage with bands like Lucero, Drag the River, Crime in Stereo, Madson Jones, Land Lines and The Queers. He is the founder of Fast Geek Press, Pretend You Can Reab audio zine, and As Well As Magazine. Fasano’s poems have appeared in Yellow Rake, Lubricated Magazine, Syntax Magazine, MovingPoems.com and Growing Strange Magazine. His book of poems, Next Analog Broadcast (2011) was published by Sunnyoutside Press, and was followed by a multimedia book and 7 inch called RETROSPECT/ED featuring the music of Lucero, released on Fast Geek Press in 2014.

 

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