THE SUNKEN GARDEN
1
“I want to be / at least
as alive as the vulgar.”
—Frank O’Hara
There was this nelly—
Cheerleader who was
Simply shameless
Long before camp—
You should have seen
Him do the pom-poms
He had simply no shame—
He was one of the girls
He flaunted Fag Femininity
________________
2
“you were made in the image
of god / I was not / I was made
in the image of a sissy truck-driver”
—Frank O’Hara
I tried to butch it up—
I was biting my fingernails
Deep in the closet
No matter how much—
I tried to act muy macho
I was still a sissy faggot
I admired you so much—
For your flagrant faggotry
You were “out” all the way!
_________________________
3
“so that in the end you seem
to be the only one who knows
what the subject of a poem is”
—James Schuyler
The shame of being gay—
Seems so truly camp since
Everybody knew anyway
I swished, I minced—
I lisped whenever I dared
To open my faggy mouth
Yet you flaunted it—
At the Basket Ball games
Everyone simply loved it!!!
_____________
4
“Oh! Kangaroos, sequins,
chocolate sodas! You
really are beautiful! Pearls,
Harmonicas, jujubes”
—Frank O’Hara
It wasn’t New York City—
I didn’t work at the chic
Museum of Modern Art
I was a soda-jerk—
At the local Peter Pan
Ice Cream joint
I was good at making—
Hot Fudge Sundays and
Jizzy fizzy lovely sodas
I flirted with the local—
Campus jocks and studs
Scooped out free ice cream
Sometimes it worked—
The Kansas City boys
Smirked, but let me
_____________
5
“The stuff they’ve always
talked about / Still makes
a poem a surprise! /These
things are with us every day”
—Frank O’Hara
The little things—
Growing up even like I
Did still in the closet
It was still a surprise—
So much young male
Beauty back in the ‘60s
Peter Pan was just—
A block south of KSTC
I was there waiting
___________________
6
“partly because of the
secrecy our smiles take on
before people and statuary”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
The Sunken Garden—
South of campus next
To gone Norton Hall
Like a scene out of—
SUMMER AND SMOKE
Alma doing Earl Holliman
That’s where I did them—
Guys I hustled for more
Than just a free soda
____________
7
“Even more fun that going
to San Sebastian, Irún,
Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
Why go anywhere else—
Some exotic Mexican or
Polynesian sex hotspot?
When Kansas cock is—
Just as big and succulent
As the dick I got
And honey, I’m glad it’s
The Flyover State ‘cause
It leaves more to me!!!
___________
8
“partly because of the
fluorescent orange tulips
around the birches”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
Especially in the spring—
That’s when I loved to
Give them blow-jobs
The gurgling fountain—
The lovely bushes for my
Trysts with Kansas cock
What more could a meek—
Mere William Allen White
Faggy librarian ask for?
9
“partly because of my love
for you, partly because of
your love for yogurt”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
Hardly, my dear—
It was more like delicious
Hot Fudge Sundays
That was your favorite—
Me skinning back the ripe
Bananas like a foreskin
Then ogling you gobble—
It up knowing that I’d
Get you off after work
10
“it is hard to believe
when I’m with you that
there can be anything
as still as solemn”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
Down there in depths—
Of the Sunken Fountain
Late on Friday nights
The bottled fetuses—
Over there in the display
Cabinets of Norton Hall
Writhing in ecstasy—
As I gulped your cumly
Squirting nasty offspring
11
“just as at home I never
think of the Nude Descending
a Staircase”—Frank O’Hara,
Having a Coke with You
Who needs Duchamp—
When I’ve got you to be
My fickle Freshman lover?
You prefer chicks but—
They all give you the usual
No pussy hanky-panky, guy!
Naturally I commiserate—
Here have a nice Fudge Sunday
Later getting you off succulently
____________
12
“and the fact that you
move so beautifully more
or less takes care of Futurism”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
Who needs a Nude—
Descending a Staircase
When I’ve got you?
I’d take you home—
But you prefer the
Campus Sunken Garden
The way you flex—
Your ass when you cum
Who needs Miss Duchamp?
______________
13
“when they never got the
right person to stand near
the tree when the sun sank”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
I was like Geraldine Page—
I’d won an argument that
I didn’t want to win
Being gay in a Kansas—
college town wasn’t the
easiest thing, my dears
I took a pill for my—
Nelly nerves though
And calmly did him
14
“it seems they were
all cheated of some
marvelous experience”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
So I stayed closeted—
Working there at William
Allen White Library
In those calm Eisenhower—
Years like Elsie Pine my
Mentor wanted me to do
The same with pianist—
Vernon Sheffield who
Gave exquisite recitals
16
“wasted on me
which is why I am
telling you about it”
—Frank O’Hara, Having a
Coke with You
So like a nelly fool—
I stayed, oblivious to
Nothing but my Muse
Wasn’t this where—
I was supposed to
Become Miss Barrie?
Peter Pan Park—
Peter Pan soda jerk
Peter Pan gay poet?
