Charles Wax Poems

I said to Barry Waldbaum in the Teacher’s Center,
“One of my students asked me, ‘What’s a hermaphrodite? ’”
“That some kinda mollusk, Bernstein? ” he said,
“cause I think I seen that creature on NATURE.”
...

I strode to the Pier in Coney Island
on Christmas day. Eleven degrees
and with a gale off the vast Atlantic
the temperature zipped
...

well, most people don’t read my stuff
cause not published
except in little magazines
with an average circulation
...

Every so often
I felt the need
to spice up my class
with a sermon
...

I descended into the pit with Caligula
while my hero the Dalai Lama
serenely watched men
sawn in half
...

When I landed in my third
period class
Trisha stood near my desk
I thought to myself, “She’s blessed—
...

Billy Mullins trudged into Meng’s
having just returned
from four months in a Florida jail,
possession of marijuana
...

Matilda Halbert pushed into Meng’s
at exactly five in the afternoon
with her red shopping cart
empty except for cardboard
...

Miriam curled up
at the far end of
Meng’s Restaurant
in Coney Island
...

For the first time in 14 months
I went to the movies
afterwards we went to China New Star
myself and six friends.
...