Our sex was so good
S.D. Mullaney
we named it Ollie. But I can't remember,
can't remember Ollie-sneaking-out
under the sight-line of your father's telescope
aimed at the stars. Ollie-in-the-dark,
Ollie-in-come-free
under hoary Sweet Pea vines
in your mother's mail-order greenhouse.
Can't remember Ollie-loves-the-morning
against the kitchen sink, dishwasher freshly
loaded. Ollie-behind-a-plastic-cordon
in the renovated wing of the reptile
house. Ollie-out of that itchy
burgundy sweater. Ollie-in sweat-stained
suede. Ollie-so-thick I can't
remember you forking
my lasagna at dinner beforehand
or playing hooky for a Friday-of-Ollie
or fixing my watch so I wouldn't be late
for Tuesdays-with-Ollie,
can't remember the last time your hands emptied
my pockets, finding a number
for sex named Spike instead of Ollie,
can't remember tripping
over telling you I didn't
recall seeing that Spike.
S.D. Mullaney earned his MFA in Poetry/Creative Writing from the UMass Boston. This is his first appearance in Anomalous Press; other poems have appeared in Hanging Loose, Pemmican, Breakwater Review, Hoi Polloi, and The New York Review. His work has been heard on WERS 88.9 FM Boston and WOMR 92.1 FM Provincetown. His first collection of poetry, Follow the Wolf Moon, is available from MJS Publishing, and he's working on subsequent collections and projects. A Plymouth native, Mullaney recently co-edited the first edition "Common Threads: seven poems and a wealth of readers" for the Mass Poetry Outreach Project, available at www.masspoetry.org. He's taught creative writing at the Walter Denney Youth Center in Dorchester and at Renewal House, a Boston-area shelter for victims of domestic violence. He currently works as a critical writing instructor at UMass Boston's College of Nursing and Health Sciences and is at work on his second collection.
