WET HAIR
By Ben Fama - Apr 9, 2017

Yesterday you went to the desert
I put on Brahms channel
and washed the tub
my fur stood up
seeing your picture
in my feed
pool boys change your towels
another violent news cycle
you’re partying with a friend
it’s very maybe she’s born with it
*
Jennifer they’d have named me
time I can’t get back
The Anthropocene is a fucked up time to be alive
yet mint grows
a chemical peel
a party in bungalow five
you’re back one month
I need to chill
with you in the desert
days of war
nights of love
the more things change
things more the
*
a collage of consciousness
pleasures of an empty mind
wet hair in the basement
S&M waterboarding training
Trisha told us about
Restylane, Juvéderm, Dysport
emerald, blood, ash
with this Apple appliance
I can be a better ally
*
I felt embarrassed walking the city
Like someone in a fiction
I’d sent a photo
of the strawberries
I’d had for breakfast
leftover from a work thing
saw your face
on a billboard
I will probably jump from
Let’s watch Mondo Cane
*
A bigger splash
god is this actual pool
gloved hands pitter ashes
into the pool
witness the people
fuck you’re on molly again
grace to live, to see
“Gymnopédie 4” on a grave
that aching deal we’d made
of ourselves
*
views between the legs of dancers
my mind is a haunted house
flesh I can’t touch
I can’t save your life meditating
on a tattoo that says brut
the neighbors are banging
to Rihanna, Kiss it Better
it’s a perfect song, all slow
it’s strength growing
how I wish
***
Ben Fama is the author of Fantasy (UDP 2015). His writing has appeared in The Believer, Denver Quarterly, Boston Review, Jubilat, Lit, Joyland and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. In 2016 he was a participating artist in MoMA ps1’s GreaterNY. He is the co-founder of Wonder, and lives in New York City.