Silvia

Hoops Partytime’s her real name,
she’ll straight up slap a man
because she don’t take no guff.
She calls me Al-House, we get
along because we’re both
neurotics but our neurosis
originates from different
regions of the soul
and the psyche
and experience
yet we’re kindred, akin
in certain ways, we
understand aching.
Where others indulge,
we get sick. Where
others feel strong
and confident, we
shrink a little
then
we turn to each other
and have the other act
as a coach who pushes
us with an amalgam
of harsh gentleness
towards where we
both know we
should be.