Ben Kline
Image by Calibra on Pixabay
Ben Kline (he/him) lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. Author of the chapbooks Sagittarius A* and Dead Uncles, Ben was the 2021 recipient of Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry. His work is forthcoming or can be found in Southeast Review, THRUSH, CutBank, Olney Magazine, fourteen poems, The Indianapolis Review, Limp Wrist, Hobart and many other publications. You can read more at https://benklineonline.wordpress.com/.
Quantum Entanglement
Despite catechism, I spent years choosing unwisely: frosted
tips, low-fat Pringles, beach orgies at night, Scientology, us.
We knew our love affair was too hot not to cool down
by year two. You blamed working from home, inertia, gay
marriage, quantum entanglement because big science, plus
the detailed spreadsheet of men I chose unwisely, your frown
a trench when my friends and chosen family recounted
my escapades, providing a context for youth being glamorous
and too hot not to cool down. We knew our affair was love
accidental, born of comic books, a vodka soda hookup
turning into weekends of sleepovers. Entropy, was thus,
sexual catechism I chose unwisely: tucking and snapping
sheets tangled on either side of my bed, weeknights devoted
to other men, some of whom risked their chance to discuss
how our cool down was not too hot for a love affair
or two. I told many of them a name not mine, protecting
what I could, what I wanted to keep for myself after years
promising myself I’d choose wisely when running too hot
for a love affair that must cool down if I want it to last.
©2021 West Trade Review
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