Guillermo Filice Castro
Little Door
“…In praise of the anus because it’s the one truly universal sexual organ.”
—Paul B. Preciado
“Just the tip” he cooed
*
Ass is funny but not for play
Oh please what did I know?
*
Boy of twenty-five on top
of me aged thirteen
doctor to my patient in need of “vaccine”
*
(In the beginning
the clothes stayed on)
*
My experience on the matter? Mother inserting
the first of what seemed
a string of suppositories
as she held me
spread-eagled across her knees
You might say I took a bullet for her
*
It’s not macho to touch another man
Men wait outside the door
till the womanly cry is gone
Oh please
*
(In the beginning
was fire
nothing but fire
nothing but)
*
Hairiness peeked through a vertical
rip in his boxers
my hand swatted at the waistband
(a fetching shade of chartreuse)
We both let out a whimper
*
The boy idled for a beat and pushed
*
I had circled him on my bike
and blurted
“Would you allow me
to see your thing?”
He stopped so did my heart
*
At the park a sign warned
“The grass is recovering
after a major event”
*
(Here lies the hole
he force-fed a bit
without the benefit of saliva)
*
After fetching butter
from the fridge
he began to chant
Door needs grease!
Door needs grease!
*
Henceforth I’d be known
as “Little Door”
*
Later on the bus
the misheard announcement
Exit through the weird door
*
(The beginning
was the hinge)
*
How to exit anyone’s bed?
As you would enter them:
Tipping on grace
Guillermo Filice Castro is the author of Agua, Fuego (Finishing Line, 2015). His poems have appeared in Assaracus, Barrow Street, The Brooklyn Rail, Court Green, The Bellevue Literary Review, Ducts, LaFovea, Quarterly West, and more, as well as in the anthologies Rabbit Ears (New York Quarterly Press, 2015), Flicker and Spark (Lowbrow, 2013), Divining Divas (Lethe, 2012), My Diva (University of Wisconsin, 2009), Saints of Hysteria (Soft Skull, 2007), and others. His translations of poems by Olga Orozco, in collaboration with Ron Drummond, appear in Guernica, Terra Incognita, U.S. Latino Review, and Visions. His manuscript was a finalist for the 2012 Andrés Montoya Prize. He received the 2013 Emerge-Surface-Be fellowship from the Poetry Project. Guillermo lives in New York City.
This poem originally appeared in Court Green #10 (2013).