Don't look now- Damian Rogers
It’s like when you eat sour candy,
how the sugar-coated acid
twists your tongue into a knot.
At the Ambassador Roller Rink
no one would slow-skate with me.
A boy rolled over to you during the power ballad
and I turned into a pillar of salt.
No, that’s wrong. I mean, I felt a lot like a sand dune. Or like
that baby food jar our family member filled with volcanic ash.
I asked the DJ to help me prove I knew the secret moves
for transforming my body into four different letters—
Y: raise your hands to the sky.
M: touch your shoulders like a mountain range.
C: pull your belly toward the door.
A: place your palms over your head and pray.
He said no. He said we don’t play that song.
I said oh. I said wait, hold on;
I am changing into someone
completely different and better.
When I turned you were holding hands with a stranger,
the handle of his comb waved from his back pocket like a flag.
You vanished behind him like a rabbit
hopping back into his magician’s black hat.
Then someone released the balloons.


