The Masculine Gaze
by Robbie Q. Telfer
It’s June and these two hot ass men
walking up Lincoln holding hands
make me wanna beep beep at em
but if I did I’d have to yell out the window
“You’re fine as hell! Congrats or thanks
and anyway I’m straight but your hotness
is fact like sunset and math and
is this technically cat
calling? Beep beep beep!”
I decide against it but it feels selfish
basking in their casual exquisite,
giving nothing back. Maybe I’ll donate
money to someplace and put in the memo
“In honor of two luminous hubba bubbas”
Sometimes the world seems so small
and ruined and then
then the eye dilates
lets in so much light you squint at
the joy of it and okay I’m probably a
little gay and you’d be too if you
saw what i saw.
walking up Lincoln holding hands
make me wanna beep beep at em
but if I did I’d have to yell out the window
“You’re fine as hell! Congrats or thanks
and anyway I’m straight but your hotness
is fact like sunset and math and
is this technically cat
calling? Beep beep beep!”
I decide against it but it feels selfish
basking in their casual exquisite,
giving nothing back. Maybe I’ll donate
money to someplace and put in the memo
“In honor of two luminous hubba bubbas”
Sometimes the world seems so small
and ruined and then
then the eye dilates
lets in so much light you squint at
the joy of it and okay I’m probably a
little gay and you’d be too if you
saw what i saw.
Robbie Q. Telfer has performed and taught in hundreds of places in nine different countries. His work appears in many publications, he's been an individual finalist at the National Poetry Slam and has a poetry collection from Write Bloody Publishing. He currently works for The Morton Arboretum and Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves trying to protect and celebrate what's left of our wild spaces.