Blossom came in quickly, walked over to Lollie, and handed her a set of papers. "Hi," she said to Lollie. "Here are our poems. Gotta run."
Lollie checked them; both Blossom's and Cal's poems were there.
Ten minutes later, Alf came in. He brought his beer to the table. "Hi, he said. He set a Daffy Duck mug on to the table and poured his beer into it. "Cheers," he said.
"The others aren't coming," Lollie pushed the poems towards him.
"You read Blossom's, I'll read Cal's." Alf seemed abrupt.
"You in a hurry?"
"Not feeling as good as I could. Personal problems, you know." Alf played with his glass of beer, but didn’t drink. "The myriad problems of aging, I guess." He smiled broadly. "And so to the poems."
But after the reading, he didn't seem inclined to stay. He left most of the glass of beer on the table, and escorted Lollie to the bus stop. She declined his offer of a ride home.
*
Why Do Men Have Nipples? [Alf]
Damn right, babe. A present from God, they are.
A reminder that we are all in the same boat
All on the same road, in a lesser way, maybe,
But we men share the essence of life, birth,
Motherhood, nurture, love, tenderness.
It's all in the nipples, chicko. We are one, you
And I. Sisters in the struggle, friends in the
Hard streets, aware of the hardships of being Woman.
I kid you not, every man knows these two little suckers
Are a bond between him and womanhood. We never
Forget it, not us. We might pretend we do, but it's an act,
Just an macho act. We carry these reminders
Out in front of us, to share your pain, feel your
Sorrows, celebrate your womanly triumphs.
You don't get any more sensitive than that, girl.
*
Why do Men Have Nipples? [Calhoun]
The night was full of stone
The 401 lost in rain, so
I pushed my way into a beer parlour
In Deseronto
I needed a beer
The ceiling needed painting
The bartender needed teeth
The guys at the next table needed
To find a topic other than
Their new nipple rings
May you never find
A night so dark that
Your church is a beer parlour
In Deseronto.
*
Why Do Men Have Nipples? [Lollie]
Basil, like most men, did not like cats
He called his own cat, “Mittens”
Always assuring the world that his
Cat would be transformed into that apparel
Some drunken weekend
And so serve him better.
“Barn cats, they’re fine,” he said, “and dockyard cats, too
But I’m convinced God made
The average house cat
Just to show that not everything
On this planet has a purpose
And that even God
Has a sense of humor.”
*
Why do Men Have Nipples? [Blossom]
for just a moment, you think
he
might understand
she
when I was young, I pretended
my teddy could talk.
****
Chapter 32: Why Are Men?
After half an hour at the Usual Table, Lollie went up and took a seat at the bar.
Inside one, Lollie found poems from Cal and Blossom. Inside the other, poems from Alf, and a brief note that he might not be able to attend the meetings for a while.
Lollie stuffed the poems, unread, into her purse. She finished her beer, and checked her watch. The bus would be along in a few minutes.
She left a tip for the bartender, and walked out into the midnight.
*
Why Are Men? [Calhoun]
In the morning, the old men dance
On the highway
The boys have plastic guns -
It is required
Sometimes the only difference between Trenton
And the wasteland
Is the raptor eye of Al Purdy
Encompassing the sidewalk.
*
Why Are Men? [Blossom]
there are words that would not be spoken,
doors to summer gardens that would otherwise
stay closed
flowers that would long for
the ravening of the bee.
myself, I would miss the way the lawn mowers
cough into a silence that holds the jingle
of the ice-cream vendor’s cart
*
Why are Men? [Alf]
He sat in the sunlight
At the door of the church
Ignoring the bottle that
He’d called Sally.
He lied, but dared not dream of hunger
In case the great doors opened
And he was forced to follow his heart
Inside, and down those stairs again
Men do that; dissatisfied, you know
With all the right answers
And all the easy lines.
In the basement of the church
Webs were waiting. They knew his hunger, down there,
His sowing and his reaping.
He would come again.
He could not wait forever.
*
Why are Men? [Lollie]
They are desire, springing
From the ground always
The madness of a laugh
That carries woman away
The faith of Canadian Tire
The sacrifice in the thunderstorm
Sound, fury, the melting of
Ice
They are the washer going into
Spin cycle
The inevitable tour of
Blankets
Kings of the cloudshapes, and
Wanton purveyors of the
Sales of falling stars
Desire, yes, like dandelions
On spring lawns.
The End
The tavern is empty
The ARBORITE TABLETOP, NOT FULLY DRY, REFLECTS THE TELEVISION IN THE CORNER