Late Night Talk Show for Lonely Hearts
by Thomas B. White

About the author

Thomas White once had the same girlfriend as Bill Clinton (though 20 years after and she was none of the "headline names"). He has been a philosophy major, car parking specialist, insurance interoffice courier and lived in Arkansas the same year (1969) that Bill Clinton did. This fact is unconnected to the said girlfriend. White has published his poetry, fiction and essays in Australia, United States and Canada.

  magic flashing bullets caught between  their

  teeth, speak not in tongues but in busy tones.

  From a drooling pink announcer mouth foul

  smelling white saliva-petals  shoot sudsy ,

  half rabid dog with patter and monologue,

  biting the bullet-shaped microphone. Alone,

  sound of the tone at 4am,the DJ ,in a leather

  jump suit, grins: dark as a wired -up spider

  in the empty studio's ghost-green gullet,

  he takes the first caller and begins to eat

  coffee-stained hearts which cannot sleep.

     After Paid Sex

     A body to die for, but

     I merely paid dearly.

     Sex for money:

     I see clearly,

     How whoring's

     Like a marriage vow,

     Or at least nearly.

     It is yes or no

    And everyone

    Understands clearly.