Is There Hope For Me?

Is There Hope for Me?

by Ben Pincus

Poetry is like standing on the edge of a lake on a moonlit night
and the light of the moon is always pointing straight at you.  – B. C.

Poetry is like one of my girlfriends
chewing gum and leaning against her locker
between classes and driving me crazy
all provocative, and knowing it, too

while she talks to Charlene, holding
a stack of books against her chest.
The chemistry lab manual is right
where I wish my hand was, and I can’t

get a word, or anything in edgewise
‘cause Mr. Brantford, that bastard
told me I’d get detention forever
if I didn’t get to English class on time.

So Hope, that’s her name, Hope, goes
to Charlene, she goes, I was like, you know
just standing there and Billy Collins
put an ice cube right down the front

of my tube top and said, Hey babe,
that’s poetry, grinning all stupid
and I was like, You are such a jerk!
And he goes, No, babe, it’s poetry,

all serious and shit, so I kneed him
right in the chimes and slapped him
with my lab manual and go, No
you stupid jerk, that’s poetry!

And I got detention anyway just
from watching, but what I really
wanna know is: do you think Hope
will go with me to the Prom?


- refers from the name Billy Collins in Timothy Gager’s poem Falling for an attached woman