print previewback OLIVER BENDORF
Blue Boy
O body come inside my God.
Spin his name, there is
a gentle joy to be had
on the ground. We want
the wind to shake through
the holy blue morning,
want to walk our flesh
down the street, impatient
and in love first and last.
Here is the boy not broken
but asleep. Here is his
skin which has never
said anything but yes.
~
A boy washes windows. In black leather pants, he sings
“Money can’t buy me love, can’t buy me love . . .”
~
What makes them different?
He stays in bed these
days not out of sadness
but its opposite, which is
the same as the opposite
of gravity. It was no
accident that she was
there first. It meant she
knew his heart through
seasons and loved
it still. And he loved hers
still, after seasons,
names of things, etc.
~
Christmas Eve, he stops at the grocery store where a crowd
gathers listening to the radio. The country is at two wars.
~
It’s a classic story shape.
The hero leaves home
to weather a storm
and at the end, he either
returns home and is accepted
or he makes a new home.
When he goes home to her,
he calls it that. He takes
her in the kitchen despite
the company. The stove
boils. Daffodils open.
He was gone a long time.
Which ending is this?
~
She starts to cry and says, “Don’t turn into a man. If you
must turn into something, turn into a wolf.”
~
War, of course, assumes
two sides and this is why
some cannot believe
in it. O right eye look kindly
on the left. Stay, stay soft.
Now the boy washing
windows goes home
to his darling. And then
he leaves, which is also
a kind of going home.
The corners of his sheets
are neatly tucked.
He sleeps for a long time. 
Title
Blue Boy