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Jason Salvant

I live with a couple who fucks all the time.

They tell me they’re going to meditate,

then I hear moans leaking from under the door.

I’m convinced they’ve fucked

on the couch, the table,

and the living room floor.

I see when they look into each other’s eyes.

It’s its own form of meditation.

Their surroundings dissolve into a space

with no place no sound no people.

The only remnant of reality is the tear

that rolls down the face

and onto the bed in orgasm.

When they inevitably marry,

I will throw them a wedding

for all of eternity

where they can stare into each other’s eyes

and say “I do”

over and over.


I could never tell you

Jason Salvant

You don’t know

that I took a shot

before we went on our first date. I wish

I had told you then.

Now it feels like a sin,

 

as much of a sin

as reading through your childhood diaries,

as rummaging through your underwear drawer.

Can you blame me

for getting into my own place

through the fire escape?

 

A good friend of mine once said

her heart is a house, and

she often has to spray WD-40 on the lock.

My heart is a studio apartment in Brooklyn,

with the bedroom in the kitchen

in the bathroom in the bedroom,

a drummer upstairs,

an old couple downstairs,

and opera singers on either side.

 

A week before our date,

I went to a Terrance Hayes reading.

He said a poem is a house too,

where the attic

holds the context and the basement

holds the subtext and the living room

holds the people and the kitchen

holds the imagery and the bathroom

holds the self and the bedroom

holds the dream.

 

So here’s the dream—

a 3000 square foot apartment in Central Park South with a penthouse, a guest bedroom, an extra half bath, central AC, enough room for a dog, enough room for you, enough room for me.

 
 

Jason Salvant is a writer and editor from New York. Like many writers, their work centers on time, love, and God. They recently learned their grandmother’s bread recipe and will not be sharing it.

@salvant_