When Time Was Young We Were Too: To Nathaniel Mackey

The movies were big, the right size
now they're the size of television, the wrong size
all the guys had big dicks
the girls all had small pussies
everybody was happy with the way things were
because it felt so good at the Paramount
because it felt so good to fuck
after that the movies went south
it wasn't the A-bomb      no one gave a shit about the A-bomb
it wasn't the wars      it wasn't the assassinations
it wasn't HIV      it wasn't death at all
it was what happened to time
after that there wasn't any      it wasn't
that there was less time    there was no time
time went south
the next thing to go south will be water
even if the movies are the wrong size
you can get by if there's a little time to go around
a little water
instead the people in the upstairs flat make too much noise
their television's too loud
we all make too much noise
you know what, if we make enough noise we'll all be destroyed at once
the mess we've made will be rinsed away by new rains
it will rain for half a million years
time will come again
it will feel good to fuck again
I don't know about you      but I plan on being here then
I don't care what I will look like
I don't care what you will look like either
because I will have a dick which is the right size
and your pussy will be the right size too
there will be plenty of time      and plenty of
cool clear bright water
to slake our happy thirst
the reason I know this is because when I thought about it
it was the only answer that made any sense
you can tell when an answer makes sense
it's like fucking
fucking always makes sense too
I ought to know      I've been fucking since I was young
and I kept on fucking even when there was no time left
I thought to myself, so what        because when you fuck
time isn't all that necessary
so I went south
what's necessary is a dick and a pussy
that are the right size for each other
that's why Zeus used to go on vacation
Zeus went south, they used to say
south with time
to Ethiopia
where all the girls and all the boys didn't care about
making noise      they cared about fucking
where time could lay about like Zeus
off duty        and drink that good original coffee
made with that blue Nile water down there
so blue even Zeus said
there is no time as blue as you, old Nile
even time said so, time said, Zeus
this Nile is as blue as your eyes

Duncan McNaughton is a poet living in San Francisco. His recent books include The Pilot (Blue Millennium), Valparaíso (Listening Chamber), Kicking the Feather (First Intensity), the wrapped church (Blue Millennium / AIOU), and another set / of circumstance (hawkhaven). He is the translator of a bilingual edition of Dario Villa's Venere strapazzata dai lunatici [Venus maltreated by the odd ones], forthcoming in 2000.

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