FLASHBACK II by Joshua Young

Joshua Young

FLASHBACK II

/ we will say it was dangerous but there wasn’t enough / before the doorframe/ before I quoted casablanca / & meant it & we wanted secrets / if you ask / i will put my awesome hands on your awesome shoulders / & yes in the doorway that is your neck // listen: this is all talk / & you know affection is a stubborn thing / there are other ways to say / i want to know your body / & yes / i want to press you against those elevator walls / put my mouth on yours / what our hands would do / because what our bodies want / & what they do get blurry in doorways / under streetlamps / after a couple good beers // there is something new here so we say / but we cling to what is comfortable / & this is not special / let’s remember that when it’s time to get nostalgic // let me say / love is the hardest burden to maintain / but i only wrote it / because / there is a romance in the way it sounds / we have two minutes before the next train / there are so many stupid things to say /

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Joshua Young is the author of four collections, most recently, THE HOLY GHOST PEOPLE (Plays Inverse Press 2014), and the chapbook Sedro-Woolley Days: A Damien Jurado Mixtape (Midnight City Press 2015). He is Editor-in-Chief at The Lettered Streets Press and works at the University of Chicago. He lives in the Albany Park neighborhood with two humans.