UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/CARL MILLER DANIELS


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY

CARL MILLER DANIELS

Enter At Your Own Risk

the spell was cast over the empty parking lot
as he stood peeing beside his car.
toads on the outskirts of the pavement
were twittering and clicking and clacking,
making all kinds of eerie amphibian sounds
as he stood peeing beside his car.
the pavement was hot, and his pee
splatted, almost hissed, and splashed
onto his tennis shoes while he peed
and listened to the little toads
in the distance.
he was sad and lonely, sexy and 17, his
big dick hanging out meaty and substantial
as he peed alone in the parking
lot, in the middle of that hot summer
night. after he'd done,
he pushed his dick back into
his pants, zipped up,
and got back into his car.
he started the engine,
but didn't put the car into
DRIVE. sad and lonely, sexy and 17,
he just sat there and listened
to the sound of the engine.
his thoughts were spinning around
kind of mish-mash inside
his head, and there was
nothing in particular he wanted to do.
so he just sat there
and listened to the sound
of his car engine,
the parking lot pavement hot,
and the night all around.
he listened to the sound
of the engine, strong
and dependable:
there was nothing else to do, so
that's pretty much just what he did
until the big cop drove over
and asked him to move on along,
so then that's just what he did,
the windows open, and him
breathing in the
steamy night air, swallowing
it as if it were
nourishment, tasty as
beer breath on the lips
of the one that he'd thought he had loved.

Carl Miller Daniels is 58 years old. He currently lives in ruggedly masculine Homerun, VA. Over the years, his poems have appeared in lots of nice places: Chiron Review; CommonLine E-Journal; FUCK!; My Favorite Bullet; Nerve Cowboy; Pearl; Thieves Jargon; Wormwood Review; Zen Baby; Zygote in my Coffee; and 5AM, to name a few. Daniels has had two chapbooks published in the past dozen years or so: Shy Boys at Home (published by Chiron Review Press), and Museum Quality Orgasm (published by Future Tense Books). The poet Antler wrote the following comment for Daniels' chapbook Shy Boys at Home, and Antler's comment appears on the cover of that chapbook: "Carl Miller Daniels' poems incarnate youthful gay sexuality with gentleness, passion and delight. Shy Boys at Home is a unique contribution to the renaissance of gay poetry in America at the beginning of the new Millennium." (Nice comment, huh?) On three separate occasions, Daniels has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He and his lover, Jon (aka "the sweetest man in the world"), have lived together for over 30 years.