numbers

i'm well known to have green eyes for such a
blue-eyed girl

and i hate meeting any other girls
you've ever known
because i sit there wondering
if you've slept with them, too--
what number they are--
oh, it's all about the numbers
in sexual circles these days,
the second or the eighth or the twentieth or the thirtieth or
even worst
the thirty fifth
(i'm the thirty sixth)

i always thought the movie 23 was
stretching an obsession with
numerics
but now i understand
i see ghostlines on every girls' chest
near invisible numbers
the outlines of your hands on
her shoulders

and i go half mad
every time
so forgive me when i don't want to meet any of your friends. i would just rather not put myself through that anymore than you've already made me do.