First Turn to Me...

Bernadette Mayer

 
First turn to me after a shower,
you come inside me sideways as always
in the morning you ask me to be on top of you,
then we take a nap, we’re late for school
you arrive at night inspired and drunk,
there is no reason for our clothes
we take a bath and lie down facing each other,
then later we turn over, finally you come
we face each other and talk about childhood
as soon as I touch your penis I wind up coming
you stop by in the morning to say hello
we sit on the bed indian fashion not touching
in the middle of the night you come home
from a nightclub, we don’t get past the bureau
next day it’s the table, and after that the chair
because I want so much to sit you down & suck your cock
you ask me to hold your wrists, but then when I
touch your neck with both my hands you come
it’s early morning and you decide to very quietly
come on my knee because of the children
you’ve been away at school for centuries, your girlfriend
has left you, you come four times before morning
you tell me you masturbated in the hotel before you came by
I don’t believe it, I serve the lentil soup naked
I massage your feet to seduce you, you are reluctant,
my feet wind up at your neck and ankles
you try not to come too quickly
also, you dont want to have a baby
I stand up from the bath, you say turn around
and kiss the backs of my legs and my ass
you suck my cunt for a thousand years, you are weary
at last I remember my father’s anger and I come
you have no patience and come right away
I get revenge and won’t let you sleep all night
we make out for so long we can’t remember how
we wound up hitting our heads against the wall
I lie on my stomach, you put one hand under me
and one hand over me and that way can love me
you appear without notice and with flowers
I fall for it and we become missionaries
you say you can only fuck me up the ass when you are drunk
so we try it sober in a room at the farm
we lie together one night, exhausted couplets
and don’t make love. does this mean we’ve had enough?
watching t.v. we wonder if each other wants to
interrupt the plot; later I beg you to read to me
like the Chinese we count 81 thrusts
then 9 more out loud till we both come
I come three times before you do
and then it seems you’re mad and never will
it’s only fair for a woman to come more
think of all the times they didn’t care
 
From A Bernadette Mayer Reader by Bernadette Mayer, published by New Directions. Copyright © 1968 by Bernadette Mayer. Reprinted by permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Poems by This Author

Kristin's Dream In November by Bernadette Mayer
I went thru the turnstyle to the party
Midwinter Day [Excerpt] by Bernadette Mayer
I write this love as all transition
Ode on Periods by Bernadette Mayer
the penis is something that fits into the vagina
On Gifts For Grace by Bernadette Mayer
I saw a great teapot
Poem [song birds take a bath in our elephant pool] by Bernadette Mayer
song birds take a bath in our elephant pool
Video: "Eve of Easter" on Public Access Poetry by Bernadette Mayer


Further Reading

Poems About Passion and Sex
9.
by E. E. Cummings
Canterbury Tales, Wife of Bath's Prologue [Excerpt]
by Geoffrey Chaucer
A Greek Island
by Edward Hirsch
A Sequence
by Leslie Scalapino
Almost There
by Timothy Liu
Antique
by Arthur Rimbaud
Arts & Sciences
by Philip Appleman
Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm
by Carl Phillips
Blue
by May Swenson
Boston
by Aaron Smith
Carrefour
by Amy Lowell
corydon & alexis, redux
by D. A. Powell
Elegy 5
by Ovid
Erotic Energy
by Chase Twichell
Fish Fucking
by Michael Blumenthal
Fixed
by Christopher Stackhouse
He Asked About the Quality—
by C. P. Cavafy
In Praise of Shame
by Lord Alfred Douglas
Kinky
by Denise Duhamel
Libido
by Rupert Brooke
Me in Paradise
by Brenda Shaughnessy
National Nudist Club Newsletter
by Wayne Koestenbaum
No Platonic Love
by William Cartwright
Novel
by Arthur Rimbaud
Poems of Passion and Sex
Privilege of Being
by Robert Hass
Remember, Body ...
by C. P. Cavafy
Safe Sex
by Donald Hall
Sex
by Michael Ryan
Song
by James Joyce
Stones
by Michael Blumenthal
The Ecstasy
by Phillip Lopate
The Elephant is Slow to Mate
by D.H. Lawrence
The Hug
by Thom Gunn
To His Mistress Going to Bed
by John Donne
XIII
by César Vallejo