Two Poems By Drew Pisarra

Yttrium

Why did the weather turn cold and drizzly
driving us two to seek shelter inside?
Why did we neck until I grew dizzy? 
Why was your skin a soft silvery-white?
Why am I colorblind? Why were you born 
unable to taste, unable to smell?
Why did you bolt like a scared unicorn
then track me down at my seedy hotel?
Why am I living here? Why do you care?
Why do I tell you? Why can’t I resist?
Why are we sprawled out, sated and bare
on a plastic cover and why insist
that we can’t meet again? Why the rebuff
followed by that nonchalant smoke ring puff?

Zirconium

What a fake you are, what a beautiful 
fake with your sparkling eyes and Santa Claus 
hands. Your dazzle is irrefutable;
smitten, I dumbly smooth over your flaws
like your Claymation lips and your Doomsday 
breath, your mismatching feet and your habit
of ignoring me in the street. (You say,
you didn’t see me. You lie – dagnabbit -- 
I saw you look away!) That sting still smarts
and yet I must give you the benefit
of the doubt since I cannot bear to part.
One fine day you’ll make up the deficit
or you’ll get a payback that makes you shrink
in horror. What might that be? Let me think.

Drew Pisarra is the author of Infinity Standing Up, a collection of queer love sonnets published by Capturing Fire Press, and You’re Pretty Gay, a book of short stories published by Chaffinch Press. He’s also a literary grant recipient from both the Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation and Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators.