School of Xerex Fino

for J-F, January 1987

Toxic, the club where we met, rundown now

Rundown then, the johns sequined with beer, dim Crush of moon-flesh dancing, the strobe’s freeze-frame

History painting a stock animation

Mirror balls, matches, condoms, sweat-raw limbs Shedding shirts, shedding disco; shrill amyl Nitrate; Doc Martens; plucked or pierced eyebrows Ripped chinos zigzagging tans; shyness shunned

Sherry your cheeky decanted ploy to haul Me home to fortify us both, pouring

Dryly from our clothes after scorching cold Flamed our skin, run-from din making you bold Air smokeless, one candle lit, till you wore

Me out and down, our legs dawn-slaked and sprawled.