Author Information
"Comparisons With Contemporaries"
by Jeph Johnson
New York's
Douglas
Goetsch
(a really descriptive poet
and contemporary
of mine,
like me,
lauded for his honesty)
two years into college
(way back when)
stuck his dick
into a fat girl
(using a Volkswagen
as a metaphor)
to lose his virginity.
...I will use Viagra
(costing almost as much
as the call girl)
instead
of metaphors
to consummate
the mockery of manhood
and overcome the virginity
I supposedly lost
last summer,
because I am still wondering
what it is like
to come inside of a woman
Hmmmm? You strike a sensitive chord here... an area of human experience that is more often than not painted with a much picturesque language then your... more grave and (self?) scornful poem. I love the line "I will use Viagra ... instead of metaphors to consummate the mockery of manhood and overcome the virginity I supposedly lost...". Really pregnant (pardon the punn) language. The last 2 lines strike me as an (over?) hasty transition from this more rich symbolic language to something that seems almost autobiographic. I'm not saying this is a bad thing... I don't really know what to think about it; it´s just that it kinda jumps out and hits me in the metaphorical face. Reminds me a little of "Clerginity" which is incidentally an excellent title, though that poem lacks the more image-rich phrases in "Comparisons..."