Posted by THE DISASSOCIATION OF THE FLESH
He’s a tad late.
That’s him in the sunglasses.
I don’t know what he puts in his hair
to make it so slicked back.
Rivulets of eau de pomade.
He’s on the skinny side
exercises subconsciously.
Bent over, concentrating.
Sees me or not, who can tell
if he is even looking this way.
I can no longer pander
to such petulance.
I’ll pump my own gas.
Note from the Poet
Christ is a homoerotic figure and the gas station attendant symbolizes Christ. We were probably brought up not to think of Christ with desire but he usually looks so pretty, half naked on the cross with those beautiful eyes and accepting.
The attendant is wearing sunglasses so that either means there is is some sort of failure of recognition or a lack of commitment. The customer is checking out the physical characteristics of the deity as he waits. He is in a position he cannot control when he waits. There are a lot of rules in organized religion.
He ultimately decides he can still be an individual and still love Christ by expressing this individuality. You have to be yourself. You cannot truly be anyone else……..
Colin James has a book of poems, Resisting Probability, from Sagging Meniscus Press. He lives in Massachusetts.
Sacred and Subversive 