Strange Men

                Girlfriends sipping tea             inscrutable

her earrings could be turquoise              or fake

I won’t tell her                blues music and strangers

dancing when it’s hot                 my real, she’d cry

                            I’d have to take her

all the way to Chicago                introduce her

                to strange men but only after I promise her

one is my cousin, one is my brother, one is my uncle

what could I ever have expected

                from someone who doesn’t even know

fake from real                  turquoise from zippers

                one needs a trash can                 the other

needs to come down.