My first dating app hook-up was
24 years younger than me, blond,
Trimmed beard, drove a big red
Pick-up right into my back yard.
I didn’t know what to do.
Asked him if we should sit and
Get to know each other or
Just go straight to the bedroom.
He tossed it back to me.
I guided him to the bedroom,
Eager to see him naked, to touch him,
I still couldn’t believe he was there.
He undressed completely, casually.
After I swallowed his load he
Studied my bedroom bookshelves,
Told me he grew up in his mother’s bookstore.
Showed me his tattoos of Genet and Cocteau.
Implied that I had too much Bukowski.
Got dressed and said goodbye.
Dad would wash the car at home, then
Take me down to the park with him
To find a shady place under some
Trees to give it a good coat of wax.
When I was real young it was just me
And my Dad and he would give me a
Soft rag and assign me a spot I could
Reach and I’d help him wax the car
In that little kid way dads find amusing.
That was how a young boy could
Spend a day with his Dad in the park.
Why I can still remember this is a
Puzzle I don’t care to figure out. It’s
Just good, between memories of the
Anger and the belt, to remember
Waxing the car in the shade with Dad
When I was young and so was he.
M.J. Arcangelini (b.1952) has resided in northern California since 1979. His work has been published in print magazines, online journals, (including The James White Review, Rusty Truck, The Ekphrastic Review, The Gasconade Review, As It Ought To Be) & over a dozen anthologies. The most recent of his five collections are: “What the Night Keeps,” (2019) Stubborn Mule Press and “A Quiet Ghost,” (2020) Luchador Press.