UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/MYLES GORDON

MYLES GORDON

Passing another client at the psychiatrist's office - 5

I want to say to him
my id, ego and super ego

are the second hand, minute hand and hour hand
on my watch

chasing one another
at their set speeds

around the clock. I
want to tick off for him

the indicators
for borderline

personality disorder
and see if he and I combined

can create one really
frightening self.

I want him to know
the therapy is working –

I’m learning to
hate outwardly

as efficiently as I’ve
done inwardly.

I
want him to stop

seeing my psychiatrist.
I want him to know

my hostility isn’t
really meant for him.

I want him to know
that’s bullshit. It is meant for him.

I want him to be my ally.
I want to engage with him.

I want us to be Mr. Bojangles
and Shirley Temple

toe tapping down those steps
as a thousand

teenagers prepare
shooting sprees. I

want to rise up with him
interlocked in

a combined self interest
bigger than us both.

I want us to save
the last two

bullets for us. Bang
Bang.

Myles Gordon is a writer living in Newton Massachusetts. A past
recipient of the Grolier Poetry Prize, he currently works as a
television producer at a Boston network affiliate. His poetry has
appeared in about two dozen journals.