cope


︎︎︎ Evan Laffer

︎ May 20, 2023

at my lowest
I admitted it was an honor
just to be nominated

and to the high noon sun
at its most moonlike

screaming down
"I heard you liked romance"

I would have said yes

even wanting is done poorly
on the first try

when the power failed
and the restaurant filled with smoke

I thought this could ruin dinner
and you thought this is my life

preferring to see it all as
something only half-owned

a good guess that’d been corrected

what an idiot thinks bitterly
about a pound of feathers

eventually
there was nothing I could do
to convince you
you were not loitering

we do our best

sharing a
park bench or bed
with equal tact

both could become more
but somehow
never after dark

morning sex
good I thought
part of your workday

across the table,
sitting on a
stranger’s ass

I looked
like someone
paying a bill



Evan Laffer is a podcaster and poet not necessarily in that order. He has lived in New York and Los Angeles and likes both. @elaffer

Also by Evan: who loves the sunrabbit rabbit